A Small Problem
by ZeroPanda
Summary: Akai Shuuichi is faced with a.. small problem. Now, he has to work with a certain miniature detective and his many friends against two new mysterious enemies that could be terrifying new leads into the BO.
1. Chapter 1

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer:**_Don't own Detective Conan. (:  
_**Summary:** _Akai Shuuichi is faced with a.. small problem.  
_**Notes:** _This.. doesn't take place anywhere specifically in the DC timeline, so don't break your brain muscles trying to figure out where it goes. It's just for fun.  
Also, screw however many years Apotoxin is actually supposed to shrink the body. Like many others, I don't care._

_**Edited.**_

-O-O-O-O-O-

One wouldn't think Akai Shuuichi would let down his guard long enough to be knocked out, but it had happened. It wasn't exactly the highlight of his life, and he was sorely thinking about just how stupid it was of him to do so when returned to consciousness.

It all started when James informed them of a suspected new member of the Organization, codename: Absinthe. Shuuichi, of course, wanted to have this person tailed. He took on the job himself, and after being given the details, was out the door and on his way.

The person was surprisingly easy to find, and even easier to follow. The person called Absinthe was a boy no older than nineteen at most. According to their information on him, provided oh-so-graciously by Mizunashi Rena, he was the Organization's newest sharp-shooter. She said that he was pretty good for a kid, but that much didn't really matter to Shuuichi. The kid was sloppy, though. He didn't seem to notice that Shuuichi had been following him for days.

Even so, the boy didn't lead Shuuichi anywhere. Not once did he meet with any of the members. He simply went to work (at a convenience store, how glamorous), and went home. He once caught the boy in a suspicious conversation on the phone, and twice heard the boy dial the Organization when sending mail. There was no doubt in Shuuichi's mind that this was who he was looking for.

Perhaps, though, it wasn't the kid that was being sloppy. Instead, maybe it was actually Shuuichi that was being sloppy. He was underestimating someone that he should not have. He of all people knew what members of the Organization were capable of.

At a moment of rest while the kid was at work, Shuuichi stood in a nearby alley smoking a cigarette. He sighed, blowing smoke out into the chilly air around him. As he moved to dispose of its remains, he didn't see the person coming up behind him until their shadow, much smaller than his own, was upon him. His eyes widened, immediately regretting not being more careful when he felt the sharp pain in the back of his head. His vision was blurry, and through his hazy mind he could hear a person sigh.

"How reckless of you, Akai Shuuichi," the soft voice said. Shuuichi recognized it as the boy's. He then heard the boy chuckling quietly, as if at some private joke. "Oh, Gin will kill me when I tell him that I got to you first." Shuuichi knew what he meant. Gin and he had been enemies now for a very long time, and the long-haired man would surely be angry when he was informed that Shuuichi was already dead by someone else's hand.

Shuuichi attempted to move, anything at all would have been fine, but he found that his head was in such pain that it felt nearly impossible.

"It's unfortunate that I can't shoot you, though. Being in public and all," the boy said, Shuuichi felt a boot on his back, pinning him down. A hand grabbed his face and pulled him painfully in the boy's direction. "I don't see what's so great about you. You don't seem so special to me." Shuuichi's head was pounding, and he felt something being forced into his mouth.

"I snuck some of these from the Organization, I'm sure they won't mind," he said with a laugh, popping the cap off a bottle of water he had handy and tilting it into Shuuichi's mouth, causing the pill to slither down his throat against his will. "I would say it doesn't hurt, but I honestly don't know! With this, I take my leave. Goodbye, Akai Shuuichi." And then he was gone. Shuuichi's body burned like a spreading fire. It hurt much more than the comparatively small wound on his head. Every fiber of his being felt like it was being torn apart and lit on fire. He wanted to call out, but couldn't. Eventually, he found himself passing out from the intense pain.

As he was coming to, he remembered all of this, and counted his blessings that he was somehow still alive. Perhaps there was a God after all? The thought was gone as quick as it came as he heard someone calling out to him. As he was still gaining his senses, he couldn't tell right away what they were saying.

"-you okay?" the voice belonged to a female. He was starting to be able to understand her now. "I think he's injured! Maybe we should call an ambulance?" she must have been with someone else. Shuuichi groaned, the last thing he needed was to be taken to a hospital. He needed to be careful. The Organization would be sure to confirm his death, so sitting comfortably in a hospital bed healing wouldn't be the safest nor smartest idea in the world.

He sat up, using both hands to heave himself off his stomach and prop himself up. As he did so, he noticed something was a bit off.

"Little boy? Oh! You're awake! Are you alright?" the female asked again. Still looking down at his rather.. _small_hands, it finally connected. _Who is she calling a little boy?_

His eyes widened in realization. He shot up, frightening the young woman, and then ran away. She called after him, but he ignored her. It was late afternoon now, and the sun was setting. How long had he been out? Had anyone else seen him? He stared down at his unusually short legs as he ran, wondering what in the hell could have caused all this. Could it be the same thing that happened to the younger Miyano? Before, Shuuichi hadn't had an explanation as to why Miyano Shiho was all of a sudden a child, when he knew well that she was actually an eighteen year old woman. Now, he thought he had the answer.

What was he supposed to do now? He looked ridiculous and suspicious in his too large clothes sprinting down the street. He couldn't risk going back to the FBI like this. Not because he didn't trust them, but because _they_would find out for sure if he did.

The sun was now well beyond the horizon, plunging the streets into darkness while at the same time lighting up the city with neon signs. He found himself running all the way to the Beika residential areas, and praised his luck when he happened upon a fat, gray-haired man stepping out of a small yellow car. He almost laughed at the irony of it.

-O-O-O-O-O-

Conan made his way to school as usual, and sat at his usual seat next to Haibara. The shrunken scientist seemed rather amused for reasons unknown to him, but he had long since learned to just roll with it. He did wonder what it was that was causing her to have such a look, but he knew it would present its self soon, so he didn't even bother asking her about it. She wouldn't tell him even if he did, so there really wasn't a point.

Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko were chatting animatedly about last night's Kamen Yaiba episode, but he paid no mind. Kobayashi-sensei finally made her appearance, later than usual, but Conan soon found out why. Not only to the reason why she was late, but also why Haibara had been smirking so.

He narrowed his eyes and gave her a look as the boy followed Kobayashi-sensei into the room. He was around Mitsuhiko's height, with short brown hair that was slightly wavy at his bangs. He wore simple jeans and a long-sleeved black shirt. He was also wearing a black cap, but Kobayashi-sensei was persistent in getting him to take it off. Hats weren't allowed.

It took a while, but after sensei had managed to get the cap off of him (which he was not too happy about), he was introduced to the class.

"Today we have a new student joining us!" she said happily. The students were all staring at the front of the room, Conan swore he caught Genta saying _'Again?'_ He laughed inwardly. "Please introduce yourself to the class."

The boy's eyes skimmed the class lazily before finally stating, "Shima Ryousei." His eyes caught Conan's, and he smirked faintly. "Nice to meet you all."

_

* * *

Uhh. This was going to be a oneshot. And then I changed my mind as I got near the end. I don't know how long it's going to be, actually. So, yeah. That's how it is. Let me know if I should even continue._

_I picked his name out randomly. I actually had a list of names, both first and surnames, and had my mom pick XD and that was what I ended up with._

_Lastly, I've finally introduced my OC to the world. He was Absinthe (no, I didn't create him for the soul purpose of putting him in the BO, he actually has a real name too). I've had him for a really long time, and I finally found something to stick him in on here. Woo!_


	2. Chapter 2

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer:** _Don't own Detective Conan. (:_

**Summary:** _Akai Shuuichi is faced with a.. small problem._

**Notes:** _Mel72000 made a point and caused me to realize I may not have been completely clear in the last chapter. I know very well that Mizunashi Rena was supposed to kill Shuuichi in order to secure her cover, but in order to work with my plot, I completely disregarded this. I hope that this doesn't put any of you off too much._

_**Edited.**_

* * *

Shima Ryousei, as was customary by now, received the attention of the whole class. That wasn't to say that he enjoyed it. In fact, when anyone tried to talk to him, he made a point to ignore them completely. He paid minimal attention to Kobayashi-sensei, and by the time lunch rolled around, no one really seemed to like him at all.

He decided that he would be completely content just eating by himself, but Conan wasn't going to let that happen. Curiosity alone drew the bright child to the shrunken FBI agent's side. He wanted to confirm what he was thinking, that Shima Ryousei was indeed Akai Shuuichi, but the other children wouldn't allow him the moment of privacy.

"Conan-kun, what are you doing?" Ayumi asked from behind him as he was about to speak to the other boy. He turned, trying desperately not to show his annoyance at the interruption. He found the entirety of the Shounen Tantei standing behind him, including Haibara who was looking quite satisfied.

"I'm talking to Shima-kun, what else?" he replied as if it were obvious, because it sort of was. Genta made a face at his response.

"Why bother? He obviously doesn't want to talk to anyone," he said, clearly already having made his judgment of the boy.

_'He probably just isn't used to talking to small children,'_ Conan found himself thinking.

"Maybe so," he turned to the dark haired 'boy' again, earning a raised brow from said boy before continuing, "But you shouldn't just give up before you even really try." He found himself smirking this time.

"Conan-kun's right," Ayumi agreed, as he had expected from her, and the girl took a step toward Shima.

"My name's Ayumi!" she said enthusiastically, "and this is Genta, Mitsuhiko, and - "

"I already know the brown haired girl," Shima interrupted, glancing at Ai briefly before returning his attention back to Ayumi. "I'm staying with her for the time being." The rest of the Shounen Tantei held looks of surprise on their faces, including Conan. So this was why Haibara was being so smug before, and how she knew there would be a new student. Conan didn't need to ask anymore. He was almost positive that this boy before him was a shrunken Akai Shuuichi.

"Ai-chan, why didn't you tell us?" Ayumi exclaimed, looking a little offended that the girl hadn't informed her. Ai gave a tiny apologetic smile to Ayumi, the little girl was hard not to like.

"Gomen, I just wanted it to be a surprise," she explained. Sometimes it amazed Conan how gentle Ai could be towards Ayumi. Ayumi smiled back at Ai, and accepted the apology. She turned back to Shima, Genta and Mitsuhiko still standing unusually quiet and (secretly) fuming behind the two girls. Who was this Shima that he could get away with being so rude? And what was his relationship with Haibara? (You can only guess which thought belonged to whom.)

"Do you want to hang out with us after school?" Ayumi asked him. He looked thoughtful for a moment, but after sparing Conan a quick look, he shrugged his shoulders. Ayumi smiled brightly and cheered, already making plans for what the group was going to do that day, and expressing her hopes of there being a case so that they could see whether or not Shima was fit to join the Shounen Tantei. Ayumi originally wanted to just outright initiate him, but Mitsuhiko and Genta were quick to decline and suggest that he prove himself worthy.

So as soon as class was out for the day, the Shounen Tantei raced to their locker with Shima in tow, praying that there would be a case within. To Ayumi's disappointment, there was none. Conan felt the need to roll his eyes, but resisted as they trudged away from the school.

"I'm hungry," Genta complained as they walked down the street, to no one's surprise.

"We could stop here," Shima spoke up suddenly, effectively capturing everyone's attention as he pointed to the small stand selling various small snacks. Genta made a face that seemed a mixture of anger and distress.

"My mom wouldn't give me any money because I spent so much on food last week," he said, longing written clearly across his appearance as he stared at the food in front of him.

Shima shrugged, "I can pay," he said simply, catching Conan completely off guard. Was this really the Akai Shuuichi he knew? Before, he was purposely estranging himself from the rest of the class, and now he was being unusually nice. He was thoroughly confused as Genta's face lit up. As Shima paid for the food, it was obvious that he had already won over Genta. Mitsuhiko was now alone in his distrust of the boy. Haibara seemed content as ever standing next to Conan, surely not knowing anything more than he, but enjoying it nonetheless. Sometimes Conan thought she just liked to watch him try.

The group continued on as Genta received his food. He ate happily and Ayumi chatted about what they would do next. Mitsuhiko suggested visiting Agasa hakase to play games, but before a decision could even be made, a man stumbled out in from of them from a building they were passing. Conan immediately picked up on the way he staggered and the fact that he had just walked out of an abandoned building. Before their eyes, the man fell to his knees, and then flat on his stomach. It was then that they could see a knife jutting out from the man's back.

Time stopped for a total of three seconds before realization seemed to strike them all. Ayumi yelled out in surprise, and Conan immediately instructed Haibara to call an ambulance and the police before running off inside the building. He was followed closely by Shima, though for the first minute of running this was unknown to him. It was as he reached the main room in the building that he noticed. He turned to Shima, blinking.

"What are you doing here?" he asked stupidly. Shima rolled his eyes.

"Kids shouldn't be running off after potential murderers alone," he explained simply, confirming to Conan that Shima was most definitely Akai. He didn't respond as he looked around the room. There were two ways to go, the stairs by the wall or continuing on to a different room.

"Well then, since you're here, do you want to split up? You go up and I'll search the back," Conan said, pointing at the door.

Shima gave him a strange look, raising a brow, "I hope you don't think I am that stupid that I would take the upstairs when it is far more likely that the culprit is downstairs. There is no fire escape in this building, so the likelihood that he would escape from the second floor is slim." Conan smirked. Shima had caught him, as he had expected. He nodded and motioned for him to follow as he headed towards the door, taking small but quick steps.

Opening the door slowly so as to remain as silent as possible, they were met with a dark hallway. They were given two ways to go, and Conan turned to Shima with a tiny smirk.

"Now we can split up," Shima said, giving Conan a nod before walking off in one direction. Conan watched him for a moment before going the opposite way. He didn't have time to be worried about what might have been ahead, and instead focused everything on the task at hand.

* * *

_Uhh.. short. Kind of. But I've set things up for a good next chapter, don't you think? I can just feel it._

_Thank you all who reviewed! It's good to know that many of you are interested._


	3. Chapter 3

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer: **_Don't own Detective Conan. (:_

**Summary:** _Conan and Ryousei chase after the culprit._

**Warning: **_There's a little bit of gore. It's not icky and detailed or anything. I upped the rating a bit to be safe._

**Notes: **_I am officially off for winter break. Hoorah!_

_Also, for all you KaiShin fans, xxKazuki-Chanxx has a story that deserves your love. It's about a shrunken Kaito! And I know I'm not the only one out there that finds that interesting :3  
Which reminds me, I don't think I mentioned that this is a generally romanceless fic. I don't know why, but I can't write canon. And this way, I will be offending no one. Just enjoy the mini-Shuu with me, because we all know he would be so adorable!  
Remember: I love all of the feedback you have for me, so don't be afraid to leave some constructive criticism._

_**Edited.

* * *

**_

Shuuichi walked quickly down the dim hallway, his footsteps light and nearly noiseless. He was still put off by the suddenness of everything. Everything was a lot bigger now than it was before.

He shook his head of the thoughts and focused on the task ahead. But he couldn't help but think about it. How long was he going to be stuck like this? How long had Conan had to endure being so small? Who was Conan, _really?_ Haibara and the hakase had failed to mention it. Shuuichi already knew that Haibara was the younger Miyano, but they wouldn't tell him about Conan. They said he had to tell him himself. But that didn't mean Shuuichi didn't have his suspicions.

Ahead, Shuuichi heard a sound. He squinted his eyes, attempting to see further down the hall, but it didn't exactly help. He slowed his steps and crept quietly down the hall. He found himself coming to a new room - how long had he been walking anyways? - that was emitting just a sliver of light. He could tell that the light inside was very dim, but it was enough for whoever was inside to move around comfortably.

He nudged open the door, so as not to bring attention to himself. His eyes widened at what he saw. _'What an idiot!'_ were his thoughts, right before he was spotted.

-O-O-O-O-O-

Meanwhile, Conan treaded off in the other direction. He walked as quickly and quietly as his little legs would allow, and finally came upon something. The only door he had come across so far was a closet, and so he had moved on further down the hall, becoming increasingly more irritated. As he reached this last door in the hallway, he listened for any movement from within. Nothing.

He reached up and gently turned the knob, pushing the door open. It creaked loudly, and he winced at the sound. Had anyone been in there, he would have already given himself away. But the fact that it did creak like that made Conan believe he had chosen the wrong way. He sighed as the door swung open, not really expecting anything but wanting to be thorough anyways. What he saw was completely unexpected, and he inwardly thanked whatever God there was that he had checked.

Before him, a young girl probably not too much older than his physical body lay. Her mouth was gagged by a piece of cloth, and her wrists and ankles were bound by rope. She was unconscious, by what Conan could tell. He knew she was alive from the gentle rise and fall of her chest, and he quickly made his way over to her. He shook her shoulder gently and called out to her, trying not to startle her. Her eyes flickered open and her wide gaze met his own. Tears pricked at the corners of them, obviously glad to see him.

Conan took off the gag and began working on the ropes. The girl cried, and thanked him between each of her sobs. As he was working on getting her ankles unbound, he felt like something was wrong. His instinct told him he should be hurrying, that there was danger, and so as soon as he got the rope untied, he helped to steady the girl on her feet before leading her quickly out the door. They ran down the hall and were soon back at the door that lead into the main room again. Conan spared a fleeting glance in the direction Shima had gone, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck rise as he shivered. Something was definitely wrong.

He instructed the girl to go outside, that people would be waiting for her there, and with that he ran off in Shima's direction. All this running made his breathing ragged, but he couldn't slow now. He was at the end of the hallway in record time, and he almost burst right through the door, but knew better than that and slowed to a halt. From within, he could hear the muffled voice of a man. His voice was smooth and almost relaxing, but the words flowing from his tongue were anything but. His eyes widened considerably. This man.. he was more dangerous than Conan could have imagined. Just what had they stumbled upon?

"It's too bad I can't play with you longer," he heard the sick voice say to what he assumed was Shima. He peeked through the crack in the door, not daring to open in just yet. There, a slightly foreign looking man stood. He was probably in his mid to late twenties at most. He had silky light brown hair that fell down to his chin, and bright, hazel colored eyes. The man would probably be quite attractive without the sick, obviously evil intent reflected in his expression.

He held a large butcher knife up, and Conan finally saw Shima. He was being held down helplessly by the man's other hand. Conan watched as the knife the man held made its way, almost as if in slow motion, towards Shima. He panicked, and decided in a split second what he would do. Not trusting his aim with the watch at this distance, Conan put his hand over the button on his belt, bursting through the door and pressing it as quickly as he could. The man looked up in surprise, nearly dropping the knife. Conan used his super kick shoes to aim a high powered kick at the man's head, but the man was able to dodge, given the split second of delay that Conan knew might cause him to miss.

Shima fell to the floor, wincing but remaining quiet as he regained his breath from being held at the throat. The man was now glaring angrily at Conan, but still managing to smirk evilly as he made his way towards him. Conan was momentarily frozen, paralyzed by fear. He remembered his watch, and lifted it up ready to aim and fire, but wasn't quick enough as the man kicked him in the stomach, causing him to fly backwards. He hit the door that had swung back to its original cracked position from the force that he had opened it, causing it to slam closed completely.

The sound of it echoed in the large room, and out in the hall. It was then, as the man was now hovering over him, that Conan noticed just what was going on inside this room, in this abandoned building, and just _why _the man outside had been killed. Perhaps the man had discovered just what was going on in this room, and was stabbed for it. It was sloppy of this person to just let the dying man loose after he was stabbed, but it didn't seem to concern him at all as he lifted Conan up by the throat and bringing the large knife up to his face.

As he pulled back for the strike, Conan heard Shima call out, but couldn't concentrate enough to know what he said as the lack of oxygen began to effect his small body.

Footfalls echoed down the hall, and Conan was hastily thrown out of the way as the man made his escape through a back door. Conan landed on the ground with a thud, sucking in air greedily. The man stopped just before he reached the back door, turning to them with an evil glint in his eye.

"We will meet again, someday, and I can finish this properly," he said before making his exit. The door burst open once more not long after the man was gone. The police officers so familiar now to Conan had finally made their appearance. It felt like too long now that the two had entered the building.

The officers were momentarily distracted by the scene before them. Conan could see the disgust on their faces as he sat up, rubbing gingerly at his throat. The room was littered with bodies and body parts. It looked as though the man had been experimenting on people, almost in plain sight of the rest of the world.

Satou was the first to recover, and she immediately rushed over to Conan's side, but not before giving the other officers orders as to what to do next, half pursuing the culprit (this half included Takagi) and the other half staying in the room. Satou, though it was apparent she would have rather been actively chasing the culprit, made sure Conan and Shima were alright. She had them out of the room as soon as she possibly could, and took their statements outside the building and away from the nauseating smell of the decaying bodies within.

Soon afterwards, Agasa came and retrieved the children in his car to take them home. After the rest of the Shounen Tantei had safely been delivered to their homes, Shima and Conan sat quietly in the back seat of the yellow Beetle. Conan noted that Shima seemed to be deep in thought. He decided not to ask about it, but received his answer anyways.

"That man," Shima spoke quietly, still not looking up from the spot on the back of the seat in front of him he had been staring at, "he looked.. familiar." Conan's head immediately snapped in his direction.

"Do you know him?" he hissed, trying not to draw Haibara's attention from the front. Shima finally glanced up to meet his eyes, looking intently at him, he shrugged.

"I don't think so..," he sighed, deciding to just leave it be for the time being. Conan watched him for a few moments longer, wondering what he was thinking about, before they arrived at Agasa's house. Conan called Ran and informed her that he was alright and was going to stay at the professor's house for the night since it was starting to get late. She didn't seem particularly pleased, but Conan was just too tired to care at that moment.

He fell asleep as soon as his head hit the pillow, where his dreams would be anything but pleasant.

* * *

_Intense. So, who is this man that looks so familiar to Shuuichi? What is he up to? Is he connected to the BO in any way? Who knows? (:  
And don't forget to go check out xxKazuki-Chanxx 's story! _


	4. Chapter 4

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer: **_Don't own Detective Conan. (:_

**Summary:** _A look at what's happening with the BO. _

**Notes: **_I need some help, guys. I would like to hear from you all which characters you would like to make an appearance. There's a new poll for it on my profile, so go and vote now!_

* * *

Shuuichi sighed, picking his small body off of his bed and stretching slightly, causing a few bones to crack. He peered over Agasa to see that Haibara was already up. He followed her lead and made his way into the bathroom, scowling as he had to use a footstool just to reach the sink. Being so small was really annoying, Shuuichi would never understand how he did it the first time around.

After finishing in the bathroom, he found Haibara in the kitchen eating toast. He decided to make some for himself as well, and once they were finished the two not-children sat in silence. Haibara still didn't know anything about Shuuichi other then that he was in the FBI, and that he had infiltrated the BO for a short time. It was all he was willing to divulge to her.

After they both finished getting ready, they went outside and eventually met up with Conan to walk to school. Conan stood in the middle of them, whether it was to settle his own discomfort at walking with them (because it was eerily quiet when they were together), or whether it had just happened that way.

Shuuichi stood on the side of the road, keeping one eye on his surroundings at all times. The rest of the Shounen Tantei met up with them halfway, chatting animatedly as they went. Shuuichi wondered how they could have so much energy in the morning, not even he as an FBI agent could stand being up so early. He silently thanked the coffee he drank before leaving.

As they neared the school, Shuuichi caught something from his peripheral vision. A flash of black; he turned and caught the back of a person in all black running down the street, looking to be in a bit of a hurry. The person didn't look large enough to be Gin or Vodka, but not small enough to be any of the girls he knew about. His eyes widened as he thought of the one that shrunk him. He was torn between running after the boy, and ducking into the school lest he somehow be noticed. The decision was made for him, however, as the Shounen Tantei impatiently pulled him onto the school grounds after calling out to him numerous times.

_Could it have been him? _

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"You said you would leave her alone," a boy of about nineteen growled, grabbing the collar of the man in front of him and forcing him down to face-level.

"She's perfectly fine," the deep voice responded, removing the boy's hands from him. The voice scowled, not liking that the boy was so comfortable with him.

"That isn't the point, she's supposed to be in school. She's supposed to be living a normal life, that's the entire reason I'm even here!" the boy yelled in a hushed tone. The voice fixed the front of his shirt, rearranging his features to display his previously calm façade once more.

"You've been sloppy," he said, smooth, velvet-like voice causing the boy to shiver and nearly take a step back, but he remained. The boy knew that the voice was pissed, but he was going to remain firm, he wasn't going to give up.

"I haven't! I got rid of the only person they sent after me, and I did it using that little poison that girl made before she escaped, there's no way they can trace his death back to me," he said.

"That man is still alive," the voice said, and the boy's eyes widened considerably. _How could that be? The pill was supposed to be absolute. _

"That's impossible," the boy said, growing angry. The voice was just trying to rile him up, he wasn't going to let her go, even after he had followed their every order. "Just let her go, please, she doesn't have anything to do with this," he said, finally stooping as low as to beg. No, he wasn't begging, he was pleading. He just wanted her to be safe, and he would do anything to make sure she was.

"Since when has family ever mattered so much to you, little brother?" the voice asked, laying a gentle hand on the boy's cheek. The boy wanted to flinch, to smack the hand away, anything at all, but he knew he couldn't. If he wanted his sister alive, he had to cooperate. He settled with merely glaring at the man he used to call his 'brother'.

"She's the only family I have," he said, emphasizing the word family. Because how could any of the others be considered his family after what they had done? After what they had put him through?

"I'll let her go for now," the voice said, causing the boy to sigh in relief, "but, you must kill him, the one you let get away. And the people who have been hiding him." The boy nodded, that couldn't be too hard, right?

_

* * *

_

Short chapters like this happen when I forget what I was originally going to write. So I created a filler, that also leads a bit more into the plot. I hope I thoroughly confused you all. If you know where I'm going with this, good for you! If you don't, it will all become clear eventually, so don't worry.


	5. Chapter 5

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer: **_I totally own Detective Conan. In my fantasies. In reality, I'm not cool enough to own something so fantastic._

**Summary: **_Ran makes a new friend._

**Notes: **_It's alright if you hate me because its been so long since I've updated. At least, to me it has been. I have a valid excuse, though. My computer's been broken since just after Christmas, go figure. My dad came and fixed it, too, and it worked for all of one day before it broke again. I'm still waiting for him to come back. I was also too stupid to be able to figure out that, since I am uncomfortable writing on my brother's computer (because that's what I've been using), I could just write and save everything onto a usb. And yeah, that's pretty much how it goes._

_On another note,_ **IMPORTANT!** _PLEASE go and vote on my poll. Not many of you have, and for me, it is imperative that you do so. I can't go too much farther without your guys' input. If you are too lazy to log in and vote, leave an anonymous review stating your choices. Just remember you can only pick four!_

_As a side note, anyone notice how fancy I talk sometimes? It's because I get into my "writing dialect", and I start to sound fancier. Even in my freaking author's notes!_

_Now, without further delay, on to the chapter!_

* * *

"You seem a bit off today, Edogawa-kun," Haibara noted as they sat in their classroom eating lunch. Conan had indeed been spacing off.

"I just have a bad feeling," he replied. He then shrugged his small shoulders and looked out the window at the bright school grounds. "It's probably nothing." Haibara looked skeptical, but made no move to argue. Beside her sat Shima, also looking rather quietly out the window, not that this was unusual for him. Neither boy had touched their lunch, though, and Haibara wondered what it could be that was so obviously bothering the two of them.

When school was finally over for the day, and the Shounen Tantei were ready for action once more – though Conan secretly prayed nothing exciting would happen today, he had had quite enough of it to last him the rest of the week. They walked, talking animatedly down the sidewalks of the city, practically looking for trouble as usual.

As they walked, Conan spotted Ran. She was, as usual, walking with Sonoko, but this time, they weren't alone. Another person accompanied the two girls, and it was a _boy. _And this boy _wasn't_ Eisuke. Conan glared, trying to figure out just by observation why Ran and Sonoko – okay, perhaps not Sonoko – would be walking with this boy. He wasn't an idiot; he knew the boy went to their school just by seeing the uniform, but it still made him wonder. Was Ran moving on already? Was she interested in this boy?

He wouldn't be too terribly surprised if she were. The boy was definitely attractive. His silky black hair fell down to below the chin with slight waves. A few golden brown natural highlights reflected in the sunlight. His features were soft, yet not quite boyish. Shockingly bright blue eyes danced with mirth as he gave a smile that any girl would probably melt over. The boy was obviously not entirely Japanese. Conan guessed that he had some foreign descent, but he could also see the asian features in his face as well.

Beside Conan, Haibara looked absolutely amused. She could sense the irritation in her friend, and that was always entertaining to the small scientist. Before she could make one of her sarcastic comments, Shima made an abrupt halt in front of them, causing Conan, who was still glaring daggers at this unknown boy, to run straight into him. Shima staggered forward only slightly, but remained stiff. Conan – originally ready to snap at Shima for stopping in front of him like that, halted when he noticed the odd look in his eyes, and easily followed his gaze back toward the boy he was previously glaring at.

"Is there something wrong with him, Shima?" Conan asked as the boy seemed to be making no attempt to apologize or stop staring at the boy.

"Other than the fact that he's walking with Ran-san?" Haibara commented, earning her a glare from the detective.

"That doesn't bother me at all," he replied, though the lie was obvious to anyone with ears. Seeming to just notice that three of their companions had fallen behind, the rest of the Shounen Tantei stopped and turned around.

"What are you guys doing?! Hurry up, slow pokes!" Genta yelled out. The three teens across the street turned their gazes in the direction of the six children.

Ran smiled and waved to them, "Hey guys!" she said cheerfully, walking the few extra steps to the crosswalk and crossing it quickly, with her two companions in tow. Sonoko looked anything but thrilled, the boy on the other hand…

Conan inspected him as he approached with the two girls. He seemed normal, but somehow familiar to him, and that bothered him. He couldn't place where he had seen his face before.

Shima took two instinctive steps backwards as the familiar face approached. The boy met his gaze, holding it for a few seconds before an almost sinister smirk made its way across his features. It was there for only a few seconds, gone as quick as it had come, but Shima had noticed, and so had Conan.

"Who's this?" Conan asked, as blunt as ever. Ran turned to the boy and embarrassment lit up her face.

"Oh! I almost forgot! This is Ishida-kun! He goes to school with us," she said, motioning to him. He rolled his eyes, but smiled at her nonetheless.

"I told you, Ran-san, to just call me Kaisuke. I transferred in from America, I honestly couldn't care less about honorifics. You could probably call me 'Jerk' and it still wouldn't offend me. Most Americans don't care about that kind of thing, unless of course they had a stick up their a-"

"Kaisuke!" she interrupted, dropping the honorific and using his first name as he requested, "You shouldn't say things like that around children." Conan snorted, 'Genta_ says worse things than that.' _

Kaisuke raised a brow, as if to say '_what kids?_'; obviously on the same wavelength as Conan. '_I'm sure kids that see dead bodies just about once a week aren't going to be too upset when they hear the "a" word.'_

"It's an alias," Shima whispered quietly from behind Conan – _when had he gotten back there? – _so that the others couldn't overhear. "He's one of **them**," he added. Conan's eyes widened, as well as Haibara's, as she had caught this new piece of information as well.

"What makes you so sure?," she whispered back hesitantly, not taking her eyes off of the boy. "He doesn't have that smell, nor does he seem to look like one." Conan could tell she didn't want him to be one of **them**, because that could potentially mean they were exposed. Why else would one of them make friends with Ran?

"He's the one who did this to me," he said harshly, though maintaining his hushed tone. Conan and Haibara's eyes both simultaneously managed to grow even wider. The boy glanced over to the three, giving a brief smirk, before returning to his conversation with Ran and an overly enthusiastic Sonoko.

Conan panicked a bit on the inside. Ran was in danger, _he_ was in danger, they _all _were in danger. The BO had some how managed to make their way into their personal life, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Kaisuke looked down at his phone and checked the time. "Oh!" he exclaimed, turning a sheepish smile to the two girls, "I'm late for work. I should be going." Ran and Sonoko looked amazed.

"You juggle work on top of school and helping out your cousins downtown? You must be awful busy," Ran said. '_Helping out your cousins downtown? What a sneaky way of saying you're one of __**them**__,' _Conan thought. Shima seemed to be sharing the same thoughts as him, as he gave a suspicious glare to the departing Kaisuke's back.

"It's no big deal," he replied, casually throwing a wave over his shoulder, "I'll see you both tomorrow. It was nice to meet you children, as well."

As he disappeared around the corner, Ayumi smiled in delight. "He was so cool! He could be a rockstar, or a model, or even a moviestar!" she exclaimed. Ran blushed, in obvious agreement, and Sonoko started gushing over him as the walked down the sidewalk in the opposite direction as Kaisuke.

"Sonoko-neechan, don't you already have a boyfriend?" Conan asked in a faux-curious tone. Really, he was inwardly rolling his eyes.

"He's not here right now. He's _never_ here! And he's not as gorgeous as Kaisuke," Sonoko yelled out, as if it should be obvious.

"Yes, but Kaisuke-niisan probably isn't as strong as Makoto-niisan," he responded, to which he earned a thump on the head and a 'You don't know anything, brat!'

He then became lost to his thoughts. He was going to have to try to keep Ran away from Kaisuke, otherwise, things could go horribly wrong. But how?

* * *

_Alright, alright. Not as long as I intended. But what can I say? Sorry for the wait. Hopefully it won't happen again._

_If you didn't read my author's note, please do so. I love you all :D_


	6. Chapter 6

A Small Problem

**Disclaimer: **_The only Detective Conan thing I own is a dvd. And it isn't even DC. It's Case Closed. Ewww. :3 DC over CC any day._

**Summary: **_Detectives, meet frantic-sharp-shooter._

**Notes: **_Loooook! I'm updating again! _

_Okay, the deadline for your guys' votes on the poll is my next update, which ..I have no idea when that will be. Which is all the more reason you should go and vote on it RIGHT NOW before I close it! (Though knowing me, it might still be a while, but don't count on that!!)_

* * *

"What's wrong this time, Kudou-kun?" Haibara asked, away from the others. He had been quite close to completely ignoring them all day, and it was worrying the other Shounen Tantei, excluding Shuuichi, who was doing the very same thing. Conan snapped out of his daze, they were at the park now, working on some meaningless case that the others only ever did to promote themselves as detectives within the school. Conan wasn't sure what they were really doing, because he obviously hadn't been paying attention. He was dragged along as usual, merely following the others as they went about whatever it was they were doing.

"Hm?" Conan muttered, as if just registering that the small scientist had spoken. "There's nothing wrong, I just.." Haibara quirked an eyebrow, not understanding where his thoughts were taking him. Conan was still wondering about 'Ishida Kaisuke', the boy who supposedly made Shuuichi take the same drug he and Haibara had taken. The boy looked so familiar to him, and usually it wouldn't be so hard for him to remember a face. Had he really seen him before or was his mind playing tricks on him? Conan thought he would remember a face like that, it wasn't as if it was forgettable. He finally came back to reality, feeling Haibara's stare still on him.

"I just feel like I've seen him somewhere before," he said, voicing his thoughts at last. Haibara made no move to respond, merely raising her eyebrow even higher in the air. Conan realized that she probably wouldn't know who he was talking about, and added, "Ishida, that is." Haibara nodded in understanding, but then shrugged her shoulders.

"You haven't seen him any of the times you've come in contact with **them** before, have you?" she asked. Conan shook his head.

"I already thought about that possibility, but there's no way. I would remember, but I don't recall ever seeing him." Conan brushed a hand through his tidy hair, and sighed, obviously a bit frustrated.

"What about that other guy?" Shuuichi suddenly spoke up from next to them. Conan jumped a bit, not realizing he had been so close to them.

"Which other guy?" Conan asked, tilting his head to the side.

"The one in that abandoned building we ran into," he replied, not meeting Conan's gaze. His expression was hard and serious, and for a second Conan was confused. What _about _that guy? Did Shuuichi think there was some connection between him and –

That was it. Conan's eyes widened in realization, and as it dawned on him why Ishida looked so familiar to him, Shuuichi finally turned to meet his gaze. There was a faint smirk as he noticed that Conan had caught on to wait he was trying to say.

"They look.. alike. Do you think they're related?" he wondered aloud, not really asking for an answer. It was true, Ishida Kaisuke and the man from the abandoned building had the exact same face. Though the hair and eyes were different, and Kaisuke was obviously younger, the resemblance was most certainly there.

"That's what I was thinking," Shuuichi replied anyways.

"So there's no doubt about it then," Conan said, fairly worried now, "that that man in the building is one of **them **too. What was he trying to accomplish in there? Was he doing as some kind of research for **them**?"

"Most likely," Shuuichi and Haibara said at the same time. Conan's eyebrows knitted together in thought. Why? _Why would they have him do something like that?_ I didn't make any sense.

"There's no sense worrying about it now," Shuuichi said, sounding a bit frustrated himself. "It will only serve to create more questions and we will undoubtedly become more frustrated. Leave it alone until they make a move, that's all we can do, assuming that Ishida and that man both know our secret." Conan was about to agree, though he truly didn't want to just give up like that, when he was interrupted.

"What are you guys doing over there? Come on!" Mitsuhiko yelled at the three not-children.

"Yeah! If you guys don't hurry up, we'll solve the case without you!" Genta added. The three each rolled their eyes. '_As if a missing pet is the most important thing on my mind right now,' _Shuuichi and Shinichi thought in unison. They caught up with the other three anyways, and each tried to forget all about the serious conversation they were just holding and lose themselves to childhood once more.

That is, until of course, they ran into more trouble. It shouldn't have been surprising at all anymore, really, but Conan found himself shocked to see Ishida Kaisuke walking down the street they were approaching. He thought if they were lucky, the boy wouldn't see him, but since when do things like that happen for Conan?

Ayumi spotted him first, and as much as Conan inwardly begged that she wouldn't call out, she did.

"Oh, Kaisuke-niisan!" she called out happily. Genta, thankfully, didn't seem to like Ishida much either, but that was to expected after Ayumi's reaction to him, though Conan knew she didn't have a crush on him. Ayumi was pretty realistic, and he hadn't really known her to ever show any true interest in anyone so much older than herself, let alone anyone that wasn't Conan.

Ishida turned in their direction, immediately spotting them and sending them a smile. He changed his course and began walking towards the six children.

"What are you guys up to? Hopefully nothing bad that will get you into trouble, right?" he questioned with a grin. Ayumi giggled and shook her head.

"Of course not! We're the Shounen Tanteidan! We solve crimes, not commit them!" Conan rolled his eyes.

"We're on a case right now," Mitsuhiko added, nodding his head as if confirming his own statement.

"Oh, really? That's pretty cool, what kind of case is it?" Ishida asked, sounding as if he were genuinely interested. If Conan didn't know better, he'd probably think Ishida was a nice guy.

Ayumi blushed a bit, it was a bit embarrassing considering she was pretty much bragging about them before. "A classmate of ours lost his cat.. again, so we're out looking for him." Ishida smiled and nodded his head, as if that was a perfectly good case and she had no reason to be embarrassed.

"That's good of you guys, did you want some help?" he offered. Ayumi's face brightened and Conan could tell she was about to tell him he could, when Genta interrupted.

"No! This is a case for the Shounen Tantei, not you," he said defensively. Ayumi gave him an angry look, which successfully made Genta back down.

"Oh, I see," Ishida said, a soft smile still on his face and his hands raised as if in an offering of peace, "I didn't mean to butt in. I just thought you might like some help, but if that would be intruding I would never want – "

"You can help, Kaisuke-niisan! This cat is really sneaky! We could use all the help we can get!" Ayumi said, causing Conan to groan mentally. Now they were stuck with him. This is exactly how he wanted to spend his day; worrying about the safety of three children and Haibara while parading around town with a person who was a threat to that safety. Wasn't that sort of counterproductive?

"Alright, well where have you looked so far?" he asked, and Ayumi began listing off all the places they had searched. They were off again as soon as Ishida came up with another place to look, and they spent a few hours looking.

When they finally found the cat, it was nearing dinnertime, and the stupid beast was sitting in the tree of a person's backyard. The six children and one teenager looked on as it sat there preening its fur, as if mocking them.

"We could always ask the residents if we can retrieve him," Ishida offered, and the other Shounen Tantei probably would have agreed but Conan shook his head.

"No one's home," he said. Ishida tilted his head down and raised a brow at the boy.

"What makes you say that? There may not be a car here, but not everyone owns a car, so you couldn't possibly know whether they are actually home or not by just that."

Conan shrugged his small shoulders. "If you look, all the lights are off. The blinds are also closed. At this time of day, that would usually indicate that the people inside are either sleeping, or not home. Either way, we wouldn't be able to ask them," he explained. Ishida looked on, impressed. _'This is most definitely not a normal child,_' he thought. And though the reasoning in itself was fairly simple, and obvious (not that Kaisuke hadn't noticed that the lights were off or anything.. he _totally_ knew), he was still impressed at the child's deductive level. It was no wonder his brother knew there was something up with the pill. The others were just _imbeciles._ Incompetent idiots. Even that fool that everyone seems to fear, _Gin. _Kaisuke didn't see what was so special about him. Sure, he was intelligent, more so than most of the other's in the BO, and he had a pretty good shot, but other than that..

"What?" Conan asked, agitated. Kaisuke had been staring at him for a straight minute with mixed expressions; impressed, amused, blank, angry, one after the other. It was starting to get on his nerves. Kaisuke blinked back to reality and grinned sheepishly.

"Sorry about that, I was just thinking of something," he said, scratching the back of his neck. "How about we just go and hop over the fence then? If no one's home, then they shouldn't mind." Conan seemed against this, in fact he just wanted to go home, but the other Shounen Tantei immediately accepted the challenge and they were all on their way to find their own route over the fence.

Kaisuke ended up just helping everybody over, and then hopping over it himself. They approached the tree, trying to coax the cat down before sending someone up to retrieve it. Of course there was no luck, and Conan was volunteered by Genta and Mitsuhiko, with a nod from Haibara who obviously loved torturing him, to go up. Unfortunately, Kaisuke offered him a lift up to the lowest branch. The kind gesture was hard to accept, because Conan was absolutely certain that Kaisuke had ulterior motives, but he reluctantly did anyways.

Eventually, without any suspicious actions from Ishida, Conan had reached the cat and gotten down from the tree. They went back to their classmate's home, feeling very much accomplished, minus Conan who was just annoyed, and Shuuichi who had remained eerily quiet.

After receiving thanks from the cat's owner, the Shounen Tantei called it a night, and each began their way home. One at a time, the group's size lessened, and soon it was just Conan, Shuuichi, Haibara, and Ishida. Conan kept an eye on Ishida from his peripheral vision, but the teen made no suspicious moves as they walked quietly along.

As they were approaching Agasa's home, Conan was pulling together his mental strength to confront the teenaged gang member, when said teen's cellphone rang. The melody blared out clearly in the quiet air, and Ishida found his face reddening a bit at the song playing. _'Note to self: never allow sister to set pick your ringtone.' _

Had the others not been so on edge around the boy, they all probably would have snickered at the embarrassing song floating into the air. Kaisuke was quick to pull the phone out of his pocket and flip it open, successfully stopping the music, and speaking into it.

"Hello?" he said, his eyes widening as he realized just who was calling him. _'Another note to self: always check the caller id.'_

"Saia?!" he exclaimed, fully not expecting the melodic sound of his little sister's voice on the other end, "I thought I told you not to call me unless it was an emergency!" The three not-children looked up at him curiously, as he sounded a bit panicky. Did he not like his sister? Why wouldn't she be allowed to call him?

He looked at the children, his expression hard to read, but Conan detected a bit of sadness mixed with worry. He pulled the phone away from his mouth and muttered an 'I have to go' before running off down the street.

"What do you suppose that was about?" Haibara asked in her usual straight voice, but even Conan could tell she was curious. Heck, so was he.

He shrugged his shoulders and turned to the other two as they came upon Agasa's house. "I have no idea, but I plan to find out, somehow," he said, and before they could respond, Conan continued on down the street to his own home, where Ran was waiting for him with dinner.

The rest of the night, Conan was plagued with thoughts about Kaisuke, and this mysterious girl named Saia. Who was she, exactly? And what about her made Kaisuke make that face?

* * *

_H'okay. So, it was longer than usual, which I was going for, but not as good.  
I'm not impressed with this chapter._

_Remember to leave me feedback!_

_annnnd VOTE ON THE POLL if you haven't already. Many thanks to those of you who have! I love you :3 -hands out cookies to nice readers-_


	7. Chapter 7

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer: **_If I owned Detective Conan, I wouldn't be writing this._

**Summary: **_Meet winner number 1!_

**Notes: **_The vote is in! And I should have known from the very beginning what the most popular one would have been, I should have just planned for him to be in there anyways XD but regardless, I have chosen to include the top four most voted for characters, and one that I decided to include on my own, despite this person's low vote count, for plot purposes. As the author, I feel like my vote counts as four XDD _

_And so! I introduce to you now, the top most voted for character (well it was actually a tie, so top most number 1)! Enjoy!  
_

* * *

Conan didn't know how this happened. One minute, he was getting ready to go meet Shuuichi and discuss the activities of the previous day, and the next he was being dragged into a shopping trip in town with Ran and Sonoko. Not only that, Shuuichi had somehow managed to get pulled in as well, and he was not a very happy camper.

Ran was ecstatic to meet Shuuichi formally for the first time, or in his current body, Shima (she stated that the first time didn't really count, because they never even spoke, and she was appalled at her manners when she realized she hadn't even introduced herself to him!). It just proved to Conan how Shuuichi's attitude affected those around him when Ran continued calling him "Shima-kun" instead of "Ryousei-kun" or, the name Ayumi had become more accustomed to, "Ryou-kun". Ran called all of Conan's friends by first name, but as always Shuuichi was the exception.

He was, in fact, giving both girls - and Conan - scary looks that made Haibara's scary looks seem gentle. That in itself was a feat to behold.

It all started when Ran suggested that Conan needed a new outfit or two, she was tired of seeing him in the same three outfits all the time. Conan gently declined, saying he didn't want "Ran-neechan" going out of her way for him. She explained that she was going to go shopping anyways with Sonoko, which made Conan not want to go even more. But the karate champion didn't seem to notice that Conan was making unpleasant facial expressions as she continued to try convincing him to go.

He then told her that he couldn't go; he was going to go and hang out with Shima for a while. Ran then became overly excited, saying she hadn't _really_ met Shima-kun yet and would love to have that opportunity. Conan had no say after that; she was already taking him by the hand and pulling him out of the house, walking towards Agasa's.

Shima was less than pleased to find that more than just Conan had arrived on Agasa's doorstep. Ran introduced herself, but Shima was generally unresponsive, simply replying with a mumbled "hello" and then glaring at Conan. Ran was a bit put off, but she held her friendly composure and continued in her attempts to win the oddly familiar child over, which was obviously not an easy task.

Sonoko was another story entirely. She never had the capacity to handle children. When forced, Sonoko could be decent, but she would never be able to stay nice to someone like Shuuichi for long. It didn't help that the first thing Sonoko had said to him was "You don't happen to have a cute older brother, do you?" to which Shuuichi responded with another glare and a sharp 'no' that shut even the ever-talkative Sonoko up, for all of two minutes.

It wasn't long before she was browsing enthusiastically through clothes, asking Ran every time she found something interesting if it would look good on her. Of course, Sonoko didn't _really_ need an answer; she believed she looked good in most things.

In between those times when Ran would give Sonoko her responses, Ran looked through the children's clothes, continuously holding up things to Conan and Shuuichi that she thought would look 'cute' on them.

Eventually, Conan and Shuuichi had to get away from the girls. Conan grabbed a few items off a rack and told Ran they were going to go try them on. They quickly made their way to the nearest changing room before Ran could protest, or worse, ask to see what it was they had picked out.

When they reached the safety of the empty dressing rooms, the two let out simultaneous sighs of relief, though neither would have mentioned it. Shuuichi continued his glare-fest at Conan, who looked away towards the dressing room door.

"I didn't ask her to bring us, she insisted," he explained, trying to ignore the heated look he was receiving. "Seriously, I wouldn't ask Ran to come with us when we planned to have that discussion about yesterday."

"Whatever, let's just be quick before she comes looking for us," he looked down at the clothes Conan had picked up in his hurry and grimaced, "and I really hope for your sake that she doesn't want to see what we look like in these," he held up a light blue shirt with the picture of a teddy bear on it. Conan's face instantly matched his companion's.

"I didn't mean to pick that one up," he defended.

"Well if she does want us to show her, you're wearing this one," Shuuichi smirked, throwing it aside. His expression then became serious once again and the mood changed once more. "Now about that phone call."

"Who do you suppose Saia is? Should we even bother having Agasa-hakase do a search on her?"

Shuuichi shrugged his shoulders; "He could have used an alias for her as well. Assuming she knows what he does, he would want her to have another name, so he could call her without endangering her life."

"But what if she doesn't know? He could have used her real name, feeling that since he never said her last name, she would still be safe." Conan's brain hurt thinking about all the possibilities. "Are they related? Friends? Something else? She's obviously important," he mused aloud.

"Well we can't do anything to find her if we don't know her full name," Shuuichi sighed.

"Then we have to try and get it, otherwise all we can do is keep watching him for mistakes." Conan and Shuuichi paused, both in thought. Not much had been accomplished with this conversation, other than the two discussing their thoughts. A commotion outside caused the two to break concentration. Conan sighed, and Shuuichi raised an eyebrow.

"Interesting things seem to follow you everywhere, don't they?" he asked, not really expecting a reply.

"Let's just hope it has nothing to do with murder this time," Conan mumbled in reply. Shuuichi understood the underlying tone of stress in the boy's voice. Who wouldn't be stressed after handling so many dead people? And at such a young age.

They left the changing room, leaving behind the clothes Conan had carelessly picked up. They were surprised at what they were greeted with – not another dead body, which is what, at this point, Conan was fully expecting – but a crowd of people gathered around in a circle. There was someone in the middle, but because of the bodies surrounding added with his lack of height, he couldn't tell who it was. The people were all smiling, laughing, or staring in awed silence. Conan met Shuuichi's raised-eyebrow-look with one of his own.

They pushed through the legs of people, trying to find Ran and Sonoko. They hadn't spotted them in their scan of the store and assumed that they were in the crowd as well. The two boys found who they were looking for at the innermost part of the circle, and were finally able to see who it was that had everyone's attention.

A boy of about Shinichi's age (his _real_ age) was standing in the middle, a piece of silk cloth laid out in his palms. He picked it up with by his index finger and thumb and displayed the front and back of it before lying it back in his hand. He then closed his hands over the cloth so it was no longer visible. Conan watched closely, wondering what on earth he was doing, but also fascinated by the fact that the boy looked _so much like him. _He then raised his clasped hands into the air and released, confetti falling around himself and the crowd. Claps ensued, and Conan rolled his eyes. _'A magician, of course.' _And it was then that his eyes widened. _'What other magician can pull off disguising as me without using a mask? This kid looks far too much like me for my comfort. Could he be..?' _But he stopped there. He couldn't just go making assumptions already; he got into enough trouble doing that already.

Conan tore his gaze away from his doppelganger glanced up at Ran who was an oddly bright shade of pink. The Shinichi-look-alike stepped forwards, towards her, and gave her a reassuring smile.

"It's alright, It's surprisingly not the first time someone has mistaken me for that famous detective friend of yours," he held out his hand, taking hers in his and bowing low. "Kuroba Kaito, at your service." Conan glared at the young magician. What was with guys being all over Ran lately? She wasn't any different than she was before.

A chuckle was heard from beside him, and Conan turned his glare on Shuuichi, who was clearly amused at the whole situation. Conan was fairly certain that he was becoming more and more like Haibara every day, and that both irritated him – because lord knows one of her is enough – but also kind of scared him. As if he needed another shrunken evil genius on his hands.

Shuuichi's amusement attracted Kuroba's attention – inevitable, really, given that he seemed to thrive on it. He smiled at him, which of course caused Shuuichi's previous amusement to completely vanish. Kuroba seemed taken aback, but it didn't last long.

"Who are you guys?" he asked casually, looking back and forth between the two children. Ran seemed to notice just then that Conan and Shuuichi had returned.

"Oh! This is Conan, and his friend from school, Shima-kun," she introduced.

"Your little brother?" Kuroba questioned.

"Oh, no. He's just staying with us while his parents are away," she explained. Kuroba seemed interested, but didn't continue on the subject. Conan of course, despite his resolve to not make unjust assumptions about the boy, remained suspicious.

"Kaito!" they heard a female voice call loudly. The crowd had long dispersed, but still lingered in case the teen magician decided to put on another show. The foursome turned to see a girl of about Ran's stature stalking towards them. She seemed a bit angry, but not in a serious manner. She looked very similar to Ran, in fact. She had brown hair much like Ran's, only a little shorter, and a slightly more childish face. "I leave for a few minutes and come back and what do I find? You making a commotion!" _'That's what I'm saying,' _Conan thought to himself.

Kaito raised his hands in front of him in defense. "I wasn't making a commotion I-."

"Attracting large crowds of people in a department store is considered a commotion, in my books," she interrupted. Ran looked back and forth between the two, eyes wide. She tried to cut in politely in the argument. But they continued bickering back and forth like and old married couple.

"Um, actually," she managed to say just loud enough to finally catch the girl's attention. She turned to Ran, angry expression immediately gone from her face as she gave Ran a warm smile.

"I'm sorry, my name's Aoko. You were trying to say something, right?"

Ran nodded her head slowly, and soon found herself smiling back at the girl. "I'm Ran. And I was just going to say that it wasn't really Kuroba-san's fault. I mistook him for a friend of mine, and kind of yelled at him. The magic was kind of his way of stopping me from – well, yelling." Ran blushed in embarrassment. Aoko's mouth formed an O shape and she turned to Kaito with a quick glare before returning to Ran.

"I see. I'm sorry about the misunderstanding," she said with a slight bow, also a bit embarrassed. The three girls – Sonoko, Ran, and Aoko – then began chatting away animatedly about different things. It was strange how easy it was for girls. Shuuichi and Conan stood off to the side, neglected but uninterested anyways. Kaito pouted at Aoko's back, not liking being ignored. He turned to the two children, who quite frankly didn't look interested in him either but a more likely source of entertainment for the magician. He leaned down to them and pulled a rose out of his sleeve. The two weren't amused, and he expected as much. He grinned as the children watched him with twin expressionless faces as he squished the rose between both palms, much like he had with the cloth, and reopened his hands to show a pure white dove sitting in its place.

Conan scanned the teen, searching for the answer to the magician's trick, as was usual to him. Shuuichi on the other hand, was slightly impressed, but wouldn't show it for the life of him. With a second pout, the teen sat in front of them on the floor, legs crossed Indian style in front of him.

"You guys aren't very easy to please, are you?" he relented. Conan raised a brow at the childish display the boy was making in the middle of the store, though not entirely surprised.

"Not really," he answered with a shrug.

"Magic's not your thing, huh?"

"I don't believe in magic," Conan replied, his tone of voice monotone, not even bothering to sound like a child. If Conan's suspicions were right, and Kuroba was who he thought he was, then it wouldn't matter anyways.

"A skeptic? Blasphemy! You're too young to not believe in magic!" he said with a grin. Conan frowned in response, not liking that look.

"Did you know there's a Kid heist tonight?" he said, raising his voice a little louder so that the girls would overhear. Conan's eye twitched, certain he had done so on purpose as Sonoko reacted immediately.

"What?! How do you know that? I didn't see anything on the news or in the paper!" she exclaimed, full attention on the teen on the floor. He turned his grin up to her and Conan rolled his eyes. _Suspicious increasing by the second._

"Aoko's father is chief of the Kid task force, right?" he said, turning to the girl in question at the end for confirmation.

She nodded. "Yeah, they aren't releasing the note because they want to try and reduce the amount of people that will show up. It makes him easier to spot out that way, and easier to chase when there aren't people blocking the way."

"Ohh, where is it?" Sonoko practically demanded.

"W-well they think it's going to be on that new tower they built just down the road. You know, the Yamazaki building. They're having their grand opening tonight and they're showcasing this really expensive jewel from England." Sonoko made a face.

"I hate the Yamazaki family," she mumbled, though nobody really paid any mind. "We're definitely going then, Ran." Her decision was final, and Ran really had no say after that. Conan noticed from the corner of his eye Kuroba holding back a laugh, as if he had just won some sort of game, though Conan was pretty sure that was exactly it. He was definitely going to this heist now, and that was probably exactly what Kuroba had wanted when he mentioned it in the first place.

"I'm going to go too, if you don't mind," Shuuichi stated next to him. Conan turned his gaze to him and gave a questioning look. "I've never really had the time to witness one for myself, and I'd like to see how you work. I hear you're the only one to ever come close to catching him," and there was the grin that Conan had so come to expect from the other. He sighed. Oh well, it would take his mind off **them **for a little while.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Looks like you're going to your first Kid heist," a man's voice said. The boy whom he spoke to turned a hard gaze on him, and with a nod, he was gone. Nothing more needed to be said, he would do it tonight. Akai Shuuichi would be silenced for good, and with him, Kudo Shinichi.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"What do you mean 'come pick you up'?!" Conan yelled into his cell phone. Shuuichi looked over at him in curiosity, the two boys sitting around at the Mouri residence, awaiting the time when Sonoko would come and retrieve Ran and them for the heist. Conan blew out a frustrated sigh and looked at the time.

"Fine, but you better have a good explanation for me, I'm busy tonight." With that, he hung up and dialed Agasa's number.

"Agasa-hakase?" he spoke into the phone, "Do you think you could take me to go and pick someone up from the airport?"

* * *

_Voila! Victor number one has been introduced. Yay! _

_My wifey, Jenko-chan, drew Kai for me. He's supah sexy hehe. But I'm too lazy to actually host it on a website and then insert an icky spaced out link for you guys, so if you really wanna see, just ask. _

_In other news, I'm eating eggrolls. Omnomnom! REVIEW. ^^_


	8. Chapter 8

A Small Problem

**Disclaimer: **_Detective Conan in no way belongs to me. Too bad ):_

**Summary: **_Meet winner number 2; The Jewel Heist._

**Notes: **_Hellooooo. I have more excuses for you guys again for my lack of updates! I always do. This time, I got sick and it lasted for like two whole weeks. And along with that, I've been busy with the school newspaper. I have a really busy week coming up, lots of interviews to do and sooo little time to write my articles along with an essay to write – albeit a short essay, but an essay nonetheless. To top it all off, I got sick again! Hurrah! _

_In addition, I really haven't been too motivated to update. I know more of you are out there reading than are reviewing (I know, because you're favoriting) – and I hate to be the author that begs for reviews, trust me – but I'm also the kind of author that needs motivation. I like to hear feedback from you guys, so please drop a line and tell me how I'm doing so far. It doesn't have to be an intricate review. _

_Thank you to all who have reviewed so far multiple times. __**Mel72000**__, __**Marie Ravenclaw**__, __**xxKazuki-Chanxx**__,and __**topaz-tantei**__. Your reviews mean a lot to me. _

_Also thanks to my onetime reviewers; __**Miyanoai**__, __**Haibara Kawaii**__, __**Aleathiel Elendil**__, and __**Miruial**__. _

_Ugh. Long author's note complete! On to the story!_

* * *

"Oh, Kudo! Over here!" the Osakan detective shouted in the busy airport. Conan's eyes widened and scanned the area for anyone who may have heard his friend, but saw no one. He then proceeded to glare viciously at the taller boy before kicking him in the shin. The detective winced and looked down on his shrunken friend.

"My bad," he said in apology.

"You need to learn how to address me already. You can't just go around yelling my identity to the world," Conan hissed out, his eyebrow twitching in agitation. The tan skinned boy shrugged and just grinned in response. As Conan began leading him away, he finally took notice of the extra person with them. It wasn't the small scientist as he had come to expect, but instead, a small boy – sort of tallish for his apparent age, but not overly so. Brown wavy hair covered by a black knit cap and olive colored eyes looked up at the detective with a serious expression that reminded him too much of the scary little girl.

"Uh, who's this?"

"It's about time you noticed. For the time being, to you, he's just Shima Ryousei. I'll fill you in in the car," Conan explained. Hattori Heiji, the great high school detective of the west, nodded, and they continued their walk back to the little yellow Beetle.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"So where are we going and what is it that's making you so 'busy' tonight," Hattori asked, air quoting the word busy. Conan rolled his eyes.

"We're going to tonight's KID heist."

"A KID heist? Why?" the Osakan detective asked curiously.

"Why not? I have nothing else to do tonight, and I just have this feeling..," he responded, his eyes taking a faraway look.

"What kind of feeling?" the other pressed.

"Not a good one." Shima sat on his side of the car, feeling very much the same as his small counterpart. Something was definitely going to happen tonight, he could just feel it. And whatever it was, it wasn't going to be a good thing.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Conan where did you go? Sonoko is going to be here any – oh, hello Hattori-kun. What are you doing here?" Ran said as the threesome walked into the Mouri detective agency.

"Hello Ran-san. I had some free time and decided to pop in for a visit. Conan-kun was nice enough to call Agasa-hakase to come pick me up from the airport. You're going to the KID heist right? Mind if I tag along?"

"I'm sure Sonoko won't mind.. she went as far as to rent a limo in order to further her attempts at impressing Kaitou KID," Ran replied with a small laugh. Hattori grinned and looked down to his shrunken best friend, who rolled his eyes and the now foursome only had to wait on Sonoko's arrival.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

A mere forty minutes later, Sonoko, Ran, Hattori, Conan, and Shima were all sitting at probably the best seats money could buy for the KID heist. In addition, they had run into Aoko on the way, who declined their invitation to sit with them in favor of standing on the ground to protest KID. Sonoko had a fit at this, and the two girls got into quite the yelling match that rivaled anything Conan had heard come from Nakamori-san's mouth, which was quite truthfully a feat in itself as the man could get quite heated when it came to Kaitou KID. Hattori, Shima, and Conan were wise enough to stay out of the argument, but Ran made her attempts at quelling the two arguing girls. And who really could say no to the girl when one punch could dent a metal pole? Needless to say, the argument, though fierce, was short lived and they parted ways.

Sonoko grumbled angrily for a while at "the nerve of that girl" though it didn't last too long, because soon she was once again gushing over "her KID-sama".

Ran turned to Hattori and sent him a gentle smile. "So how come Kazuha-chan didn't come this time?"

Hattori shrugged his shoulders, "She wanted to, but she couldn't get away from her parents. It is a school night after all." Ran nodded her head in acknowledgement and turned back to Sonoko's incessant ramblings.

The three boys rolled their eyes and edged themselves away from the conversation, engaging in their own quieter one.

"I guess I'm kind of glad you're here," Conan said to Hattori, who raised an eyebrow in response, "It'll make getting away from Ran a lot easier." The Osakan snorted, but not five minutes later, he did indeed help the two younger ones get away from the girls, and they were off to do some snooping.

Conan and Hattori scoped the area like hawks, evaluating possible entryways and recalling every trick they knew Kaitou KID had ever used, adding it to all of the entry points on their list. Shima watched in amusement, occasionally adding his opinion on things here and there, but for the most part remained silent as the two detectives went to work.

At some point, the two had done everything they could do in preparation, and could now only wait. It was getting closer to the appointed heist time, and the minutes ticked by slowly. The crowd, though less people had shown up than usual, was still fairly impressive considering no information had been given out pertaining to the heist.

Finally, the time had come. Conan looked down at his watch as the minute hand made the final tick before the crowd roared with excitement. Kaitou KID arrived exactly on schedule, his white figure soaring through the night sky like a beacon. Conan could have sworn he could hear Sonoko from her perch upon the building behind them, screaming out to KID. He wouldn't have been surprised if he could.

He swooped on top of the building where the jewel he planned to steal was being kept, and smirked out at the crowd, waving a hand and giving a bow as he called out to them. Their response was remarkably loud. Conan covered his left ear and made his way around the crowd, to a nearby building. He was almost positive that it was the direction KID would be headed to when he made it out of the building with the jewel. Shima and Hattori followed with equal determination, needing no explanation having both come to the same conclusion. KID would always make time for his favorite little detective. Seeing Conan on that roof would most likely call the thief down even if he hadn't been planning on landing there in the first place.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, somewhere nearby, a young man dressed in black sat boredly on another rooftop. Not too far from the heist, and equally not as far from the building Conan and his friends were making their way to, but still far enough away not the be seen.

He pulled the black baseball cap down lower on his face, just enough so he could still see but enough to keep his face hidden. He crossed his legs comfortably, Indian style as they called it in elementary schools, and cradled a large sniper in his lap. He stroked the shiny metal gently, not quite in a loving way, but in an absent-minded manner as he watched the white figure streaking across the sky and over to the building where the jewel was kept. The boy had no reason to pay attention to Kaitou KID, at least not until he made it out of the building with the jewel.

The boy was uneasy. He wasn't sure about what he was doing, especially after everything he had done so far, but he took a deep breath and pushed it all aside. He was doing this for someone important to him, so he couldn't just back down now.

Absinthe sighed. Even though he wasn't necessarily killing a child, it still felt like he was. Kudou and Akai were in the bodies of children, and it just felt so _wrong_. But it was what he had to do.

As the white figure emerged from the building, through roof as expected, with a trail of angry police officers behind him, Absinthe took his position. He pressed his body to the ground, sniper aimed at the jewel thief. _'What better way to bring the targets to you than to kill their thief?' _It had been the last thing _that man _had said to him before he came to the heist. He growled at the memory of him. How he _hated _him. Loathed his very existence, but could do nothing about it.

He peered through the scope of his gun and rested his finger gently on the trigger. He had surely done this numerous times, but never had it felt so wrong. His gun had always been his safety, and his assurance, but now it was a deadly weapon. Not only did he have to use it to kill a national icon, he had to use it to lure in two innocent people – people who just so happened to be stuck in the bodies of children.

The thief took flight, and Absinthe frowned. It was now or never. He took aim, his body shaking in an abnormal manner. _'Why can't I detach myself from the target?' _he asked himself. It shouldn't have been this hard. So why was it now?

Not even his steadying breaths could stop his shaking, so he frowned and decided just to take the shot. The BO would be disappointed in him, but it didn't matter. He wasn't one of them, not truly. So he followed the white figure, and finally, he took that dreaded shot. The bullet zoomed through the air, closing in on its target, and as it went, the boy held his breath.

He let it out as the bullet hit, but cursed when he realized it hadn't been fatal. Inwardly, he thanked whatever God had made him miss. He observed as the Phantom Thief swerved in the air and dove off in a new direction towards the ground. He turned the scope of his gun to the building Conan and his friends stood upon. It had been undoubtedly where KID was headed, and now Shinichi, Hattori, and Shuuichi were standing upon the edge, watching with horror stricken faces as the thief made for the cement below him.

Absinthe watched as Shuuichi's eyes made for the building that he was still laying upon. It was obvious that he had already calculated where the bullet had been shot from, and motioned for the two boys next to him. They nodded and were, as had been expected, already head down the stairs, making their way to Absinthe.

He waited. There wasn't anything more that he disliked than waiting, but he did anyways. He could hear the crowd below him yelling in terror after witnessing the hit, and hearing the gunshot. He absently watched as the police made their way towards the fall site and in all sorts of other directions looking for whomever made the shot. Helicopters wizzed around in the air, obviously in search of himself and the fallen Kaitou KID.

He sat up, his back facing the door that the boys were certain to burst through any moment now, and inwardly laughed a little at the fact that none of the copters seemed to be able to find him. It was a shame that they were so incompetent. It was no wonder the police had failed to realize that the Black Organization had been working right under their noses this whole time without even the slightest detection.

The door behind him finally burst open, and he could hear the heavy panting of the three boys. Conan stepped forward first, or so he calculated by the sound of the footfalls.

"It's about time you got here," Absinthe said in his most neutral tone. He betrayed none of his uncertainty in his voice, which he was altogether proud of since his hands were still shaking.

"Why did you shoot him?" Conan questioned, surprisingly cold and yet still calm even as his breathing was still heavy.

"I shot him so that you would come to me. Its so much easier when you're all in one place," he explained.

"What do you mean? You only did that to lure _us _over here?!" Absinthe lowered his gaze to the ground, many yards below him, as he dangled his legs over the edge dangerously.

"That _is _what I said, isn't it?" Conan stared open mouthed at the back turned to him. How could anyone do that? Kill an innocent person – or rather, mostly innocent – just to lure him to them. It wasn't fair at all. He wanted to yell, scream, attack, anything! But he kept his composure.

"That's not right," Hattori said seriously. Absinthe let out a laugh, sounding positively sinister in the situation. In reality, he was in agreement. He was angry at himself for being so weak, and angry at the world for putting him in this situation. He pushed his sniper aside and reached inside his jacket for the smaller gun he always kept on his person.

"Lots of things aren't right. Life isn't fair, I know that much personally. But unfortunately, I can't just allow you to live. You know too much, and two of you should have been already dead in the first place."

"What are you saying?" Conan asked. He couldn't possibly know..

"I'm saying that Kudou Shinichi and Akai Shuuichi should already be buried underground. You cheated death, and we can't allow that," Absinthe explained. The three looked on with shocked expressions. _They knew! _

He sighed. It was time to do the deed. He started to turn slowly, and Conan readied himself as best as possible, kneeling down to power up his shoes and opening the lid of his stun-gun watch. He wasn't going to go down without a fight.

As Absinthe turned to face them, pushing up the rim of his hat with the point of his gun, Conan was completely stunned at the person standing before him.

"K-kaisuke?!"

* * *

_Dun dun dunnnn. Once again I leave you on a cliffy._

_What happened to KID? What's going to happen to Conan&co?_

_Why am I asking you?!_

_You'll just have to review and find out after the next chappie!_

_Muahahaaa._


	9. Chapter 9

A Small Problem

**Disclaimer: **_Once upon a time, there was a girl named Panda who didn't own Detective Conan. She is sad to say that after 8 chapters, she still does not own it. _

**Summary: **_Introducing number 3; What on earth is going on?! Hooray for suspense!_

**Notes: **_Despite all of my stress, I am here to update once more. Go me! I finished my essay, so that's one worry out of the way. (Though to be quite honest I wasn't worried about it in the first place, I've always been pretty good at bullsh*tting essays bahaha). _

_More than one of you asked or commented on Conan's surprise at Kaisuke being the shooter. To this, I have two responses. The first: When _aren't_ they surprised when they find things out in DC? Seriously. Second: They may have known that Kaisuke had to do with Shuu's shrinking, but that was it. The shooter could have been anyone, really. _

_Thanks to: **Marie Ravenclaw**, **Mel72000**, **Miyanoai**,and** just anie6142** for reviewing. Especially Miyanoai, who gave up her laziness to review. I know exactly how it feels to be too lazy to review, trust me. _

_Onwards, my loyal dogs! I mean- oops! Read on, o faithful readers that I adore so much. -dodges knives- I love you?_

* * *

Hakuba Saguru was currently standing in astonished silence as he and a hundred other people watched in horror as their iconic thief plummeted from the air towards the ground below him. Even Aoko, he noted, looked absolutely terrified. It was true that Kaitou KID was a menace, but he didn't ever do anything that deserved being shot over.

Hakuba found himself torn between going after the fallen KID, or finding out who shot him in the first place. The police were already on top of both things, running around in a frenzy through the crowd of rioting people. Girls were crying out and guys were yelling; to whom was undeterminable.

Hakuba made his decision when he saw the Osakan detective and his miniature along with another child running across the street to another building. They must be in pursuit of the shooter, he determined. Knowing their propensity for getting in trouble, though his deep-seated concern for whom he suspected to be his friend Kaito's safety, he followed the three.

When he arrived inside the building, he had already lost sight of them, but knew they had started to climb. There was nowhere else to go. So Hakuba took the elevator next to the one they were using as high as it would take him, and when he stepped out, found the stairs leading to the roof.

When he reached the door at the top, he could hear voices. At first, they were muffled through the door. Hakuba inched himself as close as he could go without being seen through the crack in the door. He strained his ears and managed to catch the tail end of the conversation.

"You cheated death, and we can't allow that," he heard a severe voice say. Deep within it, he could hear hesitation, a very slight unsteady sound that he wouldn't have heard had he not been listening so intently. As the words sunk in, his eyes widened. Whoever it was intended to kill them! But why? And what did he mean by "you cheated death"? How could two children and a troublesome Osakan teen have cheated death? And who exactly was "we"? Were there more of him? Was it some kind of gang? What on earth could those three have gotten themselves into? And did this have anything to do with KID being shot?

"K-kaisuke?!" he heard the mini-detective, Conan stutter incredulously. He knew the shooter, then? Hakuba shook his head; he couldn't keep questioning everything. He needed to do something!

"That's right, _Conan-kun. _Or should I say Kud-," but he never got a chance to finish, as Hakuba finally made a decision, albeit a dangerous one.

"Stop!" He yelled foolishly, "This is the police! Drop your weapon." He knew he didn't sound anything like a police officer, but it was all he could do.

Kaisuke stood a bit dumbfounded for a moment before he snorted. He tried to hold it in, but it just seemed to burst out of him. He outright laughed at the English detective's sad attempt at impersonating the authority of the police. His nerves seemed to temporarily wash away as tears sprung to his eyes from laughter.

Were they in any other situation, the three other detectives may have laughed at their counterpart's expense as well, but they remained silent and stood in a dazed sort of trance as they watched their potential killer break down in hysterical laughter. Meanwhile, said detective blinked in shock. Was the criminal seriously _laughing _at him? Was he _that _awful?

Apparently so, as the teenager just continued to howl with laughter. Hakuba became frustrated all too soon.

"Alright already! I get it! It was a bad attempt, now stop laughing at me!" he yelled through the door. He pushed it open, revealing an almost pouty face, were the boy capable of it. As the detective stepped out, Kaisuke instinctively pulled his cap back down over his face so that he couldn't see him. He quelled his laughter and wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes.

"Ah, that was too good. Thanks kid, that was exactly what I needed," he said with a chuckle. After that, the atmosphere settled back down to its previously severe state.

"You know, to begin with I really only anticipated the two midgets, but looks like I've hooked some extra fish. How exciting!" Kaisuke said, training his gun on the shortest detective. Though he didn't look it, he was definitely the most dangerous, armed with numerous ways to defend himself, though he didn't discount the mini-agent or the Osakan either.

"I'm going to assume that you were the one that shot Kaitou KID. If that is so, then I can also assume from what I overheard – which admittedly isn't much – and from what you've said so far, that you did so in order to lure the two children over here to you. If this is true, I can't even imagine why you would want to do something like that. What awful thing have they done to warrant such a thing, Kaisuke-san?" Kaisuke glared at the teen in front of him, though he couldn't see it. The detective had indeed overheard at the very least the latter half of their conversation.

"You will address me as Absinthe. Kaisuke may be the name that these children know me by, but it is by no means my real name. I would also prefer that you not make yourself so comfortable with me. In answer to your question, it isn't my place to tell you what it is they did. I'm merely their executioner. If you wish to ask them now, feel free to do so. Or, if somehow you live to tell the tale, you can always find my _boss_," Conan quickly noted the emphasis Kaisuke put on the word boss, "and ask him yourself. But I can guarantee you won't live to tell about it." Hakuba blinked in astonishment, along with the other three. They were partly surprised that Kaisuke would keep their secret, but what he said made sense. It really wasn't his place to tell.

Conan poked around at Kaisuke's words, and focused on his seemingly intense dislike of his boss. At least, it sounded like dislike. He decided to give it a go.

"Why don't you like your boss?" Kaisuke's expression changed. Conan, unfortunately, was blocked from seeing as he lowered his head even further from view.

"I-I..," Kaisuke stuttered. He sounded.. uncharacteristically afraid. He sounded just like he did on that night when he got the phone call. Seconds later, as if on cue, that familiarly embarrassing ringtone sounded around them. Without hesitation, Kaisuke picked it up. Hakuba and Hattori were shocked that the boy would answer his phone in this kind of situation, but Shuuichi and Shinichi were starting to piece things together.

"Saia," he let out in a worried voice, but his breath notably hitched after what was probably the response.

On the phone, Kaisuke was met with a terrifying voice, _"I'm watching you," _it said,_ "If you don't kill them right now, she's dead."_

Kaisuke trembled, with fear and with absolute loathing. "Don't you dare touch her," he seethed.

"_She won't be harmed if you do as I say. Stop talking about us, and start shooting _now," came the reply. Kaisuke's mind was spinning. He aimed the gun with shaking hands, dropping the phone to the ground. Amazingly, it stayed in tact. His bright eyes tried to focus on the three in front of him, but his vision was being blurred by tears; tears of fury, tears of sadness, and tears of frustration all jammed into one.

Conan readied himself, hand on the button of his tranquilizer watch, but he could see the emotional wreck before him that was Kaisuke. There was no way that he was doing this because he wanted to. Someone was threatening him, and it wasn't in Conan's nature to let something like that happen. Someone might die if he darted Kaisuke, and it would be his fault. But if he didn't do it, then _they _would die. What was he supposed to do in this kind of situation?

At the same time, Shuuichi was having similar thoughts. His hand itched for the gun he would have usually carried with him, but tonight he didn't have it. Tonight was supposed to be just an innocent KID heist, nothing more.

A few moments passed by, and Hakuba instinctively took a step backwards. In that instant, a gunshot went off, and they all squeezed their eyes shut in anticipation. But after another moment of nothing, they opened their eyes to reveal a shell-shocked Kaisuke. His gun was lax in his hand and his eyes wide. Kaisuke hadn't fired his gun, so who had?

He finally dropped the gun in his hand, and fell to his knees. He picked up the phone slowly, and put it up to his ear, accidentally hitting the 'speaker phone' button in the process.

"I meant it when I said _now_. Your sister is dead, consider yourself next." The line went dead, and for a few short moments, the only noise was the sound of the helicopters and the dial tone of the phone.

Even though he felt an absolutely overwhelming grief, Kaisuke kept his senses in tact, and stood up. He grabbed the gun, causing Conan and the others to once again stiffen, but relaxed when he tucked it away into his jacket. He turned up the bill of his hat, revealing a carefully masked, emotionless face.

"We have to get away from this building, and fast," he said, and they all wasted no time in turning on their heels and racing down the stairs.

"Why do we have to get out of here?" Hattori asked as they went. He kept his suspicions close, but knew that when someone said 'we have to get away' to at least show an inkling of trust. He kept his pace even with Kaisuke, in order to make sure that he didn't try pulling the gun back out, but was relatively unworried about it.

"If I know him, and by now it's safe to assume I do better than anyone, he's rigged this place to explode. In fact, if we don't pick it up, we're undoubtedly not going to make it," and with this said, everyone picked up their pace. When they finally reached the bottom, Kaisuke held up the rear of the pack, which really made Conan's mind work in overdrive – because why would he do that? – but given the situation, he shook the questions off and continued out the door. Hakuba got out first, followed closely by Shuuichi, Conan, and then Hattori. Kaisuke was the last to get out, and not moments after, the building began to explode – first the roof, where they had previously stood, and then each floor one after the other in quick succession. The five boys weren't twenty steps away when the bottom floors exploded, hurtling them forward several feet.

The explosions drew in the crowd from the KID heist, as well as every officer that had originally been looking for KID's shooter. Citizens in nearby apartment buildings and offices peered out their windows and balconies and looked on in awe along with the rest of the city. Smoke filled the sky as the flames licked the air and reached up unbelievably high.

Conan wiped away the blood on his face he received after the five had hit the ground. His fall had been blocked quite a bit by Hattori, who had shielded him from most of the impact in a strange bout of brotherly instinct. Meanwhile, Hakuba lay a few feet ahead of them, though having flown farther, he was in better condition than Hattori, and Kaisuke as well, he noted as he turned to look at the criminal.

Kaisuke had, for some unknown reason, latched onto Shuuichi much like Hattori had to Conan, and shielded his fall. Other than a few scratches from the blast, Shuuichi found himself relatively unharmed. Kaisuke, on the other hand, was in very much the same condition as Hattori. Each had severe wounds from their attempts to shield their smaller counterparts and the impact from sliding across quite a few feet of concrete. The wounds, though quite bad, were all superficial. Unfortunately, their ears were all ringing from being so close to the explosion, and it was nearly impossible to hear what was going on around them as they began to sit up slowly.

Sirens rang out in the night as fire trucks and ambulances approached. A few police officers had already arrived and were attempting to help the already recuperating boys. Each of them was temporarily partially deaf, though, and could hardly hear anything they were being asked.

Kaisuke eventually let go of Shuuichi. Had either of them noticed that Kaisuke had grabbed onto him, neither made mention of it. All involved were a bit dazed at the moment, but Kaisuke kept just enough of his wits about him to stand up on unsteady legs and stumble away. He ignored the calls he was receiving as he walked away, pulled away from anyone bold enough to actually grab onto him, and eventually managed to flee the scene.

The four remaining sat in the very same places as paramedics arrived on the scene and picked them up, racing them off to the nearest hospital.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Conan-kun!" Ran cried out as she bolted into the room. Conan was sitting up in his bed, and smiled gently as Ran appeared at his side.

"I'm fine, Ran-neechan. I only had a few cuts. The explosion kind of messed with my hearing a bit, but it's only temporary." Ran looked about to cry, but she held herself together for Conan's sake. Detectives Satou and Takagi entered the room after her and stood awkwardly at the back of the room. Conan understood that they wanted to take his statement; at this point it had become routine, but for a few moments, they just let Ran sit with him, to relieve her worry.

"Are the others okay?" Conan asked. Ran's expression was unreadable as she searched for her words.

"Well, Shima-kun is fine, he's in relatively the same condition as you, I think the doctor said. As for Hakuba-san, he's all right, a little worse off, but he'll be fine. Hattori had a bad burn from the force of impact, but they said it was fixable. He hasn't come out of surgery yet, though," she explained. Conan frowned, but nodded. He decided not to worry about it just yet.

"And Kaisuke-niisan?" he asked. Ran looked confused, and then worried.

"Kaisuke was there as well?" her tone was that of concern, and if Conan didn't cover himself, she might go into her usual panicky mode.

"O-oh, um, nevermind! I was just thinking of Hakuba-niisan!" Ran looked unconvinced, but let it be anyways.

It was then that the two officers decided to interrupt, and Ran reluctantly left the room for Conan to give his statement.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Meanwhile, Kaisuke stumbled through back alleys, avoiding the streets. He couldn't go back to his apartment, not when his brother would be out looking for him. At the same time, he had to keep away from civilians; they would certainly try to help him when he didn't need it. No, for now he needed to find some place to stay – some place that wouldn't ask him too many questions.

He quickly came up with a solution. He didn't like it, but he knew that the person would open their arms to him and accept him, no questions asked. He winced, just thinking about her. She wasn't exactly the ideal host, but she would most certainly keep him safe for the night. The twisted, backwards, hard-to-figure-out woman who had so many identities it was hard to keep them all straight. The woman known as Vermouth.

* * *

_Well how's that for interesting and unexpected plot twists? Don't you just love it? _

_I know I do. _

_Review please, my loves! Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree~_

_ps. I forgot to tell you guys I put that picture of Kaisuke my Jenkars drew me on my profile. It's at the very bottom if you wanna go see it. _


	10. Chapter 10

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer: **_Last night, I gained the rights to Detective Conan! I decided to start playing with the plot a bit and then it started losing readers and went bankrupt!! And then I woke up. I still don't own it D: But if my dream means anything, then I guess that's probably a good thing._

**Summary: **_The story of Kai._

**Notes: **_My mom got pink eye. Pray with me that I don't get it too. _

_Arghh. Nobody told me that I said "Kaisuke-neesan" instead of "-niisan" in the last chapter. How embarrassing, all of a sudden my OC has turned into a sister. Garrhh. But I have fixed that, so if any of you caught it, you can stop laughing at me now._

_~Thanks to __**Mel72000**__,__** Miyanoai**__,__and__** Marie Ravenclaw **__for reviewing again :3_

_CHAPTER 10! I have REACHED THE DOUBLE DIGITS! THIS CALLS FOR CAPS! LET'S CELEBRATE~! -cheers-_

_

* * *

_

"I don't like it," he said with a glare at the mirror.

"Well that's too damn bad, I went through all the trouble of dying your hair lighter, so you're just going to have to deal with it," the woman responded, smacking the boy lightly on the head.

"I look too much like _him_, though. What kind of disguise is it if the disguise makes me look exactly like the person that's looking for me?!" he exclaimed, throwing his hands into the air. He winced at the friction it caused the scabs on his shoulder to make against the fabric of his shirt. The mirror in front of him reflected his image, only now with soft, caramel-colored locks.

"Let me cover that disgusting scrape on your face," Vermouth said, pushing Kaisuke back down on the chair he sat upon. He glared and swatted her hands away from his face.

"No. Maybe it will make him less able to recognize me," he responded. She raised a manicured eyebrow, and shook her head.

"Yes, but if he does find you, it will be easier for him to recognize you from then on. That scrape is pretty bad, it will most likely scar, especially since you aren't going to the hospital for it. It looks like a borderline burn mark," she explained. Kaisuke glared at her once more.

"Put that stupid cream stuff on it, I don't want to wear the makeup." Vermouth rolled her eyes, but surprisingly complied.

"What are you going to do about this? Your brother might find it beneficial to tell the rest of the Organization of your treason, or even worse, about that pill's side-effects." Kaisuke looked down in thought as Vermouth began applying a soothing cream to his injury. If he was lucky, it wouldn't end up scarring.

"I'm not really sure. I can't really do anything about either of those things. I don't care if the Organization learns of my so-called treason, but Kudou and Akai..," he trailed off. Vermouth finished with the cream and turned around, pulling out a roll of bandages. She folded some into a square and then turned back to Kaisuke and slapped the square on his face. Literally. His eyes widened as it came in contact with his injury.

"Ow!" he yelled out, she ignored him and placed gauze tape over the bandage. When she was done, he was met with Vermouth's trademark evil smirk, the one that usually meant trouble.

"You, somehow, managed to care about both of them even though you spent very little time with them, am I right?"

"No. They just don't deserve to be killed. They're doing the right thing by trying to stop the Organization, and I can't let them die," Kaisuke said seriously. Vermouth studied his face for a few moments before forcing off his shirt. Kaisuke wasn't really fazed by this action; Vermouth was a very blunt person. Despite the very little amount of time he had spent with her – which he had done on purpose – he knew enough about her to know she wasn't being forward. As it was removed, she grabbed his arm and studied the smaller scrape on his arm.

"It's amazing what the force of an explosion can do, hm?" she said aloud as she went to wrapping his arm. He knew what she meant. To have received the injuries he had – on his shoulder and on his leg – the fall would have had to have torn through his clothes. He was thankful, though, that the clothes had sustained most of the impact. His face wasn't as lucky.

"I agree with you, though," she said after she had wrapped the arm and moved on to his leg. Kaisuke once more didn't bat an eyelash as Vermouth pulled off his pants; he was still covered, after all.

"You agree with me?" he asked, a bit surprised.

"Yes. The little silver bullet can't die. I don't care much about Akai, but if he comes with the package, then I suppose it can't be helped," she said rather calmly.

"Are you telling me to protect them?" Vermouth looked up from her position wrapping his leg and caught his eye.

"I'm not telling you anything." They stared at each other for a moment before Kaisuke let out a smirk.

"I see," he said. Vermouth finished, and stood up, as did Kaisuke. "Thank you for the help, I'll probably be seeing you sooner than I would like to," he said as he pulled the clothes Vermouth gave him after he had showered back on. She watched with a neutral expression as he walked to the front door.

"Where are you going?" she asked carelessly. It didn't matter to her where he went, she was just curious.

"I have an injured dove to find," he replied, and then he was gone.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kaito groaned in pain. He had managed to get pretty far away from his fall site, but it had been hours now and he had lost a decent amount of blood. It hadn't been a fatal shot, he had been thankful of that, but if someone didn't find him soon he could be in trouble.

He could tell that it was early in the morning now. The light was starting to illuminate the alley he was laying in, but thankfully – since he was still in his KID outfit – he was hidden carefully behind a garbage can.

He had really gotten into a pickle, here. On the one hand, if no one found him soon, he could die. On the other, if someone found him, his identity would be given away. He groaned again. This really sucked.

He thought he heard someone walking in his alley, and he instinctively pushed himself farther behind the trashcan and out of view. He held his left leg, not really knowing if the bleeding had stopped yet. He gave up on worrying about that hours ago.

The steps got closer and if his breathing weren't so ragged, he would have held it. He tried to quiet himself, so that whoever was there wouldn't hear him, but it seemed they had. A figure appeared in his vision, but his sight was blurry. He was tired and had lost so much blood.

"Hey there," a soft voice said, "its time to get you some medical attention." Kaito was confused. Who was this person?

"I can't," he protested, though he felt a bit silly for it. Why was he protesting medical treatment? He needed it.

"Sure you can, come on. We just have to get you out of those clothes," the voice said. Kaito heard a rustling noise as he assumed the voice was getting out some different clothes for him.

"Why?" he moaned out as the voice began helping him out of his KID costume.

"You'll be recognized if you don't, silly-,"

"No, I mean, why are you helping? You won't tell?" there was a few moments of silence as the voice continued changing him out of his clothes and into the new ones. It was actually becoming quite unnerving to Kaito, until finally…

"Of course not, it was my fault you got shot anyways."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kaito awoke feeling much better. He had no idea where he was, since he hadn't opened his eyes yet, but he felt safe where he was.

As he sat there, he briefly recalled someone helping him. A man – no, a boy. A boy helped him change into new clothes, so his identity wouldn't be given away, and then he helped him to the hospital. He remembered the boy saying he was the one who got him shot, but how?

He finally decided to open his eyes, being blinded by the bright light and the intolerable amount of white inside the room – a hospital. The boy brought him to the hospital. He looked down at himself. He was now dressed in a hospital gown. He moved the thin sheet off of his lower half and inspected his leg; it was now wrapped carefully in bandages.

Just then, a person walked in. He looked up, and was caught the eye of a boy probably not much older than himself. He had bright blue eyes and light brown, wavy hair that fell down a little past chin and framed his face neatly. He had a bandage on his face, but the boy smiled when he saw Kaito awake.

"Oh good, you're awake," the boy said, stepping closer to the bed. "It's a good thing I got to you when I did, you could have died out there. I'm surprised you don't have a cold or something, it got pretty chilly last night and you were out there for hours." Kaito tilted his head. Who was this boy?

"Do I know you?" he asked after a moment of awkward silence.

"Oh! Well, you do now!" he exclaimed. He put one arm around his stomach and gave a low bow, "Sasaki Kaien, at your service KID-sama!" he said enthusiastically. Kaito's face reddened. So this boy definitely knew who he was.

"Oi! Say that louder, would you? I don't think the rest of the hospital heard you," he said sarcastically in a hushed tone. Kaien blushed and held up his hands in a sign of apology.

"My bad," he said sheepishly. "So what should I call you? Preferably your real name, since I was kind enough to give you mine."

"I don't see how the logic in that works. Why should I give you my real name? You know that I'm KID, wouldn't that be dangerous?" Kaito responded. It hardly seemed like the same kind of trade-off. It was bad enough that this guy knew who he was.

"Well, I would say you're already in danger. I told you before that I was the one who got you shot. Well, to be more specific, I was the one who shot you. But hey! You lived, right? And I saved you, so I'd say that we're pretty even," he said with a grin.

"_You _shot me? Why?! Who are you with? Who do you work for?"

"Yeah, sorry about that," Kaien said, scratching the back of his neck, "I shot you because I was told to. It was a life or death situation, though not my own. I'm not with anyone nor do I work for anyone… anymore at least." Kaito was confused. What did he mean by _anymore_?

"What do you mean, anymore?" he decided to ask.

"Ah, ah, ah!" he replied with the wag of his finger, "I won't tell you any more than that unless you tell me your name. You aren't exactly being fair here. I've told you much more than you've told me. In fact, you haven't told me anything!"

"My name is Kaito."

"Kaito wh_aaaa_t?" Kaien probed. Kaito rolled his eyes.

"Kuroba. Kuroba Kaito. Now will you fill me in, please?" Kaien paused, feigning a thoughtful expression before turning a grin on Kaito.

"Sure! But just so you're aware, knowing will only put you in more danger," he waited for some kind of objection, but Kaito simply blinked and waited for him to continue. "Well, fine. You're going to be the first person that knows the whole story," he said with a sigh.

"I'll just start from the very beginning. From the time of my birth, I was raised to be a killer. My mother and father were both in this… gang, I guess you could call it. They raised me to be a part of it as well. My older brother and sister and myself were all trained to be killers and bred to be a part of this gang. The gang, by the way, is known mostly as the Black Organization; generally because the members dress in black.

"It's a grueling process. You begin to lose your humanity. I never had the love of my parents or siblings, so I was always alone. The only person in the world I had was my baby sister, Saia. I protected her from their cruelty. I didn't want her to have to go through what the rest of us went through, and I wanted her to grow up with her innocence in tact.

"My older brother and sister were prodigies. They were accepted into the Black Organization when they were pretty young, and they moved out after they got in. I remember the day they left like it was yesterday. I was both sad and happy to see them go. They were both heartless people, just like our parents, but with them gone it meant that our parents' focus would now be on Saia and myself. I had to work doubly hard to keep Saia away from them, and they worked me twice as hard. One day I just couldn't take the abuse anymore and I ended up killing them in front of my little sister. I-,"

"You killed your parents? How?" Kaito asked. His eyes were wide in shock and disbelief. Kaien frowned sadly.

"Yes. One day, during my close range training – which was pretty much just knives and daggers and stuff – I just went crazy. My sister was there, unfortunately, but I couldn't take it anymore. I'll spare you the gory details, but I'll tell you it wasn't pretty. I just kept going after her, and kept going long after she had bled out. My dad came in then. I probably wouldn't have been able to kill him if there hadn't been so much blood, I think he was in shock, really. I was ten.

"After that, I couldn't really do anything. I had just killed my parents, our only shelter and food source. It didn't take long for the Black Organization to find us. I was able to keep them away from Saia by hiding her in a closet and later calling the police so they would find her. But they took me away from her. I went to live with numerous different members of the Organization. They raised me. I hated it, hated everything, but my brother knew my weakness. He knew how to keep me with them.

"All of that has led to this. He wanted me to kill Conan, the little boy who is so good at outwitting you, and another. I shot you because my brother told me to, in order to get the boys to come to me, and it worked." Kaito seemed overwhelmed with all of this information.

"You killed him?" he finally managed to ask.

"No," Kaien responded immediately. "I hesitated, and it caused him to kill her. He killed our baby sister. So I got them away, and then the building exploded. They're all fine."

"Who is all?"

"Conan, an FBI agent, that Hattori kid, and Hakuba Saguru. Three celebrated detectives and an FBI agent could have died because of me," he said sadly. Kaito's eyes bugged out.

"Hakuba too?" he said sadly. Two of _his _detective almost died! Kaien nodded. Just as Kaito was about to speak again, the door opened once more, effectively silencing both boys as the doctor walked in.

"Ohhh, you're awake! Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?" the doctor asked. "Just to make sure you're in the right mental state, then I'll let you know your condition." Kaito nodded slowly. Kaien took this as his moment to escape.

"It was nice talking to you, Kuroba-kun. I'll undoubtedly be seeing you again soon, so don't worry! Get better soon!" and before Kaito could even protest it, the boy had gone. He sighed and turned to the doctor.

"Well lets get this over with, then."

* * *

_This is more of an informational chapter._

_I've finally revealed Kai's past! And his real name! Yes, Ishida Kaisuke no more! Kaien's true identity has been revealed! And he knows about Kaito being KID! Oh my!_

_Well now you all know that Kaito is indeed all right. You can all relax now, I know you were worried. But honestly, do you think I would have killed him off? You voted for him to be in there, why would I be so cruel? …oh, that's right. Because I am. Hehe :3_

_Stay tuned. It will start getting exciting soon. _

_Ps. The rating is going to go up in future chapters, or rather, after a certain future chapter. This is a hint, by the way._

_Pps. I'm __**spoiling **__you guys! Why on earth have I been updating so much! Geez! I think I deserve more reviews for all this updating! It's so unlike me! -hint hint- - wink wink- :D_


	11. Chapter 11

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer:** _I have no source of income at the moment, so no, I don't own Detective Conan.. yet :P_

**Summary:** _Hospital visits_

**Notes:** _I got my laptop, and I got my word, and now I is updating. Hurrahhhhh! _

_**Marie Ravenclaw**__, __**animegirl1987**_, _**just anie6142**__, and __**Mel72000**__. –hugs animegirl1987- yay new reviewer! New reviewers get cookies –hands them out- and they aren't poison, I swear. _

* * *

Kaito fell back on his hospital bed with a loud sigh. He needed to be out of the hospital already, but the doctor insisted on one more day. He didn't know why, he was just fine now.

He couldn't stand just lying there. With nothing to do and no one to distract him, his thoughts roamed wild. He didn't like thinking so much unless it involved some kind of magic, prank, heist, or any combination of the three. He thought about everything he had been told the day before by Kaien. He never imagined that his little tantei-kun was involved in something dangerous enough to warrant an assassination. In addition, he couldn't help but wonder who the FBI agent he had mentioned was, and why there was even an FBI agent there in the first place.

He sighed again. He would rather be home with his mother, who was undoubtedly worried. She was updated on the situation, and after she received the news, Kaito practically had to beg her to go back home. He wanted her to be there, but he also wanted her to be home in case Aoko came around, and it was pretty much guaranteed she would given his absence in school.

He growled in frustration. There was nothing on the t.v. – of course not, that would be too easy – and no one was there to talk to him. The nurses were far and few between, though that isn't to say they didn't absolutely love him. They enjoyed being around Kaito and his fun attitude and magic tricks, but they were always so busy that they couldn't come around as often as they might like to and they couldn't stay that long either – just long enough to check up on him and maybe watch a trick or two.

Just as Kaito was about ready to give up and page a nurse with some made up complaint, the door opened. Kaito's head snapped up excited that he was getting company, but then his expression turned into slight confusion and a bit of worry when Kaien walked in the door once again.

"Don't look so happy to see me!" he said with a grin. Kaito wondered how he could be so happy, but then realized that Kaien was very much like himself. Kaito always tried to put a smile on grim situations, so he picked up his attitude to match Kaien and gave the boy a small smile.

"That's more like it. So I heard that you kind of like magic," he started, Kaito rolled his eyes, "so I thought I'd impress you with some." Kaien pulled a bouquet of flowers seemingly out of nowhere. Kaito gasped overdramatically, as if he actually didn't know how Kaien had done it, and then grinned as he handed the flowers over to him.

"They're apology flowers, I figured I shouldn't come back to visit again without some, since you wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for me."

Kaito shrugged, "I don't really care who comes to visit at this point; I've been bored out of my mind. I forgave you the second you walked in. If you stay and talk with me, that is." Kaien laughed and nodded.

"I'll stay as long as you want me to. I owe you that much, I suppose." Kaito smiled genuinely. It was strange that he was felt like Kaien could be a really good friend, despite everything he had told him about his past and the fact that he shot him in the first place. He supposed if there was any reason to do everything he had done, his was a good enough one (excluding the murder of his parents, that is). He looked forward to talking to him for the rest of the night.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Are you sure you're okay enough to be released, Hattori?" Conan asked as the trio (Shuuichi walked along side the two) left the hospital.

"I'm fine, Kudou. And I know what you really want to do," Conan raised an eyebrow at his Osakan friend, who grinned in return, "You want to see if you can find KID. No doubt there are very few gunshot wound patients in the area, and though it might be dangerous to his cover, it might be more dangerous for him _not _to go." Conan seemed to think this over for a moment; Hattori was right, that is what he wanted to do, but for what reason? Did he want to go because he wanted to make sure the thief was alright? Or did he want to go to find out his identity? Doing it to find out KID's identity would feel like cheating. He was pretty sure that that was the reason the KID task force hadn't checked hospitals for him already. It didn't feel right. But Conan really did want to make sure he was okay, he wouldn't know what he would do with himself if KID got hurt all because of him.

"If we check all the hospitals in the vicinity of the crash site for gunshot victims, we're bound to find him. There can't be too many," Conan mused out loud.

"Not to mention that even if there were, it would be easy enough to narrow it down based on what you already know about him," Shuuichi added out of nowhere. The two detectives nodded in agreement.

"Alright, well what are we waiting for then? Let's go," Hattori said with an enthusiastic grin. He called a cab and the trio was soon on their way back to the crash site.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Hey, neesan!" Conan called out to the secretary in his cute little boy's voice. Shuuichi and Hattori waited near the doors, hoping that this one was the one that Kaitou KID was being held at. This was the third hospital so far, and they only had one left that was in the area. They were hoping that they wouldn't have to search outside of the area, because that would mean many, many more.

"Can I help you, little boy?" the lady behind the counter asked, leaning over it over to see the small detective.

"I'm looking for my cousin. He looks a lot like me, only older. He's a gunshot patient," Conan explained, hoping the woman wouldn't ask for KID's name since he didn't exactly know it. He was being purposely vague, giving only details he was fairly certain about. He knew that KID looked a lot like him in his teen body, otherwise he wouldn't be able to pull off disguising as him without a mask, and he obviously already knew that KID had been shot. He probably wouldn't have fallen out of the air had he not.

"Excuse me, are you talking about Kuroba-kun, little boy?" asked a passing nurse, effectively cutting off the secretary who looked about to say something. Conan felt a grin arising but left it on the inside as he stared up innocently at the smiling nurse. He just _knew _Kuroba was KID.

"Yeah! Do you know what room he's in?" he asked, not needing to fake his enthusiasm this time. He'd finally found who he was looking for.

"Why, yes. I just came from his room for a checkup. He has a guest in there right now, but he really enjoys having company. I'm sure he'd be very happy that you came to see him. Would you like me to take you to him?" Conan looked back at Hattori and Shima. He was unsure, now that the nurse had said he already had a visitor. Should they wait? If it was someone who didn't know that he was KID, then they couldn't talk about anything. On the other hand, Conan could probably talk to him without revealing anything. He'd become pretty good at doing so already.

He turned back to the nurse having finally made his decision and gave her a nod. She smiled and beckoned him to follow her. He did, and Hattori and Shuuichi trailed along as well.

Meanwhile, Kaito and Kaien were engrossed in a conversation about the great magicians of the past century. It was a heated debate, each had good points and opinions, and certainly neither expected to be interrupted again so soon as a nurse poked her head in. It was in fact, the same nurse that had just left not even five minutes ago. The two teens raised their eyebrows at the white-clad woman. She smiled gently at them.

"I found some people as I was passing through the lobby. They came here to visit you, Kuroba-kun. It was lucky I did, too, otherwise they'd still be stuck at the reception desk!" Kaito turned a suspicious eye to his new friend, who met the look with an identical one of his own and shrugged. Neither knew who these visitors were, and Kaien was a little more than worried, because with Kaien's brother knowing Kaito's secret, he wasn't safe. He could have told the rest of the BO.

His worries were appeased, however, when the nurse stepped aside and in walked three very familiar faces. Two seven-year-olds and a teen walked through the door. Kaito thanked the nurse politely and she closed the door behind them. For a few moments, all was quiet at the five stood staring at eachother awkwardly until finally Conan broke the silence.

"Kaisuke?" he croaked out. He nearly flushed in embarrassment at the tone of his voice, but kept his cool. This was the second time something Kaisuke had done had surprised him. First, he shot Kaitou KID, and now he was sitting in said thief's hospital room. Plain as day.

"Actually, it's Kaien. Good to see you all are out of the hospital. Were you just released today, Hattori-san?" he responded, regaining his ability to speak. Much more smoothly than himself, Conan hated to admit.

"Uh, yeah. How'd you know?" Hattori responded.

"I may or may not have been checking up on you all. It was my fault you nearly died after all. I wanted to make sure you were all right. I saw that the others were released. I was a bit worried that you were more injured than I thought, but you look pretty good."

"You don't," Hattori replied bluntly. Kaien gave him a sheepish grin and placed a hand on the bandage on his cheek.

"It's not so bad, I deserved it anyways. Besides, I can't afford to be in as public a place as a hospital." The trio nodded in understanding. In an attempt to get all the basic questions out of the way, Conan spoke up once again.

"So is Kaien your real name or another alias?"

"It's actually my real name this time. But I would prefer if you continue on calling me Kaisuke out there," he jerked his thumb over his shoulder out the window. They nodded again.

"So you came here to check up on Kuroba too?" he pressed.

"The first time I visited, yes that was the reason. Now, I'm just company until he's released. Oh, am I saying too much?" he asked, turning to Kaito. Kaito shrugged his shoulders, it seemed impossible to hide his identity at this point to these people. They already found him.

"No, I'm sure it would only be a matter of time before tantei-kun found me out. They're here anyways, which means they were looking for me. It's already a bit too late for secrets," he said. "Before you ask, because I know you will eventually, I'm not going to tell you why I steal or why I return everything I steal. Not yet, at least. We have more important matters to discuss right now, like how you all are involved in this Black Organization. Kaien told me all about them, but I still don't really know what it has to do with you. I'm pretty sure I'm correct in assuming that tantei-kun is actually Kudou Shinichi. It's a bit obvious at this point, but who's that one?" he pointed at Shuuchi, "Is he the FBI agent you mentioned?" Kaien nodded.

"Akai Shuuichi," the mini-agent introduced in a monotone voice.

"So, now that I'm involved, want to tell me what's going on?" Conan glanced over his shoulder at the closed door, and then sighed. He supposed he didn't really have a choice. Kaito _was_ involved with them now, whether he wanted to be or not, and he deserved to know what was going on.

"I'll explain, but in exchange, I'd like to know what's going on with you, Kaien," he answered. Kaien smiled and nodded in reply. And so, Conan launched into his story, starting from the beginning when he stumbled upon Gin and Vodka, to taking the pill, to meeting Haibara, to all of their encounters with the Organization and all the way up until the incident with Mizunashi Rena. After that, Shuuichi added a bit, to which Kaien told his perspective on as well.

After quite a long time, though no one really knew _how _long, all the stories had been told. The group was now sitting in silence, taking in everything that they'd been told.

"So what do we do now?" Hattori broke the silence. They all turned to him.

"We keep chasing them. _Everyone_ is in danger with Kaien's brother still out there. On the other hand, with Kaien, we have a great advantage. We have inside intel without needing to wait on Rena's phone calls. We should also contact the FBI. I think its time they know about you still being alive, Shima." Shuuichi didn't really like that idea. Not because he didn't want them to know, but because he was still worried about the BO finding him out. But with Kaien's brother on the loose, it didn't really matter either way. His cover was in danger no matter what, so he nodded in agreement with Conan.

"I'll contact James, then," Shuuichi said, pulling out his cell phone. He moved away from the others so he could hear better. Meanwhile, the remaining four continued talking.

"Kaito, you should definitely try and stay out of the papers for now. We don't want-," Conan started, only to be cut off by Kaien.

"Actually, I had a pretty good idea. Yeah, Kaito should lay low for a little bit, but only until we're sure we're able to keep him safe once he does go out. Once we have the FBI on our side, I say we use Kaito as a lure. I know my brother will want to finish the job, he always has. I'm actually surprised he hasn't tried yet, probably waiting for the perfect opportunity or coming up with some grand, sick scheme. We lure him out in the open and then take him down." Conan gave Kaien a look that clearly said '_are you insane?_' but Kaien ignored him.

"I won't condone using Kaito as a lure. And I definitely don't want any "taking down". No one has to die here," he responded. Kaien rolled his eyes.

"You can't possibly think there's any way we're going to have Ryan arrested. He's not exactly easy to catch, and as far as the police know, he's innocent. There's no evidence against him, since I hardly count as a valid witness."

"Ryan?" Kaito asked before Conan could reply. Kaien nodded.

"Yeah, that's his name. His _real _name that is. I wasn't lying when I said I was from America. My family and I travelled back and forth between here and there. The only one of us not born there was my little sister, Saia."

"Oh," Kaito said. There was a silence before Conan finally spoke again.

"We can't _kill _him."

"Why not? I'm fine with it. It needs to be done, doesn't it?"

"That's not what I meant-"

"I'm with Kaien," Shuuichi said, finally reentering the conversation. "James wants to see us all when Kuroba is released. In the meantime, we should all watch our backs. Perhaps we should all go somewhere else for the night instead of home." Conan and Hattori nodded in understanding. Kaien shrugged.

"Doesn't matter to me. I've been staying with a witch," he commented. No one really bothered to question him, not that they knew who he was staying with. They just didn't bother.

"A hotel then?" Hattori asked. Shuuichi replied in the positive, and soon they were all ready to go, seeing as it was already getting close to the end of visiting hours. They said their goodbyes to Kaito and started walking out the door, but realized that Kaien wasn't following.

"What's wrong now?" Conan asked him. He looked a bit unsure.

"I think I'm going to stay," he said after a moment, "I don't feel okay leaving Kaito alone."

"They won't let you stay past visiting hours," Hattori mentioned. Kaien shrugged.

"Never said they would know about it." The two detectives rolled their eyes, and Shuuichi just shrugged.

"Alright then, see you soon I suppose," Conan said, and they took their leave. Kaien turned a smile on Kaito.

"You don't have to stay, I'm sure I'll be fine," Kaito assured.

"I still wouldn't feel right," Kaien replied stubbornly. Kaito wasn't about to complain, though. He got to keep his companion.

--

_I forgot what I was going to say here. _

_But uhh.. yeah. I wanted to mention that sometime in the next few chapters the rating is going to go up. No, there isn't going to be any lemons. I told you guys already that this was romanceless. And I suck at those anyways XD I've been writing one for my friend for months now. _

_But that's beside the point. Yeah.. the rating will be going up. Luckily for those of you who don't like that, it will be an entirely optional part to read and I will warn you ahead of time. It's definitely not going to be suitable for all audiences. _

_That said, review please!_


	12. Chapter 12

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer:** _Nope, still don't own it. _

**Summary:** _Plans are made_

**Notes: **_Ohh. :P Yay for short chapters!_

_You guys are lucky this was pre-written. I only got one review.. for shame. I wouldn't have updated if this wasn't already written, tbh. As I said, motivation keeps me going. _

_Thank you, **Marie Ravenclaw**, for being the one person I can count on to review every time. I love you :D_

* * *

Unknown to Kaito, Kaien had stayed awake the entire night. Not only did he do this to ensure Kaito's safety, but those damn nurses always decided to come in just when he was getting relaxed. He had to sprint over to the bathroom to hide every time one came in. He was fairly confident in his smooth-talking ability, but some of the nurses were just plain awful – one in particular almost took his head off when he had first come in to visit in the morning. Needless to say, he was sure to stay away from her in the future.

When Kaito woke up, Kaien was still there - though he had left momentarily when visiting hours resumed to retrieve a coffee from the cafeteria. Had he not, he might have been falling off his perch on the window sill. The nurse came in, thankfully not the awful one from before, and checked on Kaito one last time.

"You look to be in good shape, Kuroba-kun. The doctor will be taking one last look at you before you can be released. He should be here any moment now, so just sit tight," she said before leaving. As promised, the doctor arrived and took one last look at Kaito before he approved the release. As soon as the doctor gave the go-ahead, Kaito was up and already getting ready to leave. He pulled on the spare clothes Kaien had been nice enough to give to him when he brought him in – though he didn't wear the shirt, it was a little bit bloody, Kaien had brought him a second one to replace it. They were out the door the second he was fully clothed. Kaito complained about the crutches he was forced to use, but he needed them to walk around.

Kaien called the little detective, having managed to get his number at some point the night before, and asked what they had on the agenda today.

"You guys do alright last night? No attempts on your life or anything of the sort?" Kaien spoke into the phone. He could practically hear the eyeroll Conan was undoubtedly giving him.

"_We're fine. Has Kuroba been released?" _

"Yup! So what now, boss?" Kaien responded enthusiastically. Conan was still adjusting to this more cheerful side of Kaien. Though he hadn't necessarily been mean or angry before when he was 'Kaisuke', he wasn't used to such honest emotion. Especially not directed at himself.

"_We're going to go meet James, Jodie, and Camel. They're staying at a hotel near the hospital so don't leave the area. We'll meet you over there and head there together," _Conan explained. Kaien agreed and they hung up. He nodded at Kuroba and together they waited for their newfound friends to come and retrieve them.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Sh-shuu!" Jodie was the first to say as the five guys entered the hotel room. James stood aside as the emotional woman barreled over to the mini-agent. He didn't flinch as she fell to her knees in front of him. For a moment, she left her hands on his shoulders and just stared at him, as if taking in his small appearance. And then, she pulled him in for a large bear hug.

"Don't you ever do that to me again!" she cried, burying her face into his tiny shoulder. Shuuichi would have pushed her away were he strong enough. This revelation caused his eyebrow to twitch in irritation.

When she finally pulled herself together enough to release the olive-eyed agent, she noticed the rest of the group. She wiped a trapped tear away from her eye as she smiled at Conan and then moved up to the familiar Osakan detective. The boy next to him was unfamiliar, standing awkwardly on crutches and looking much too like an older Conan for comfort, but the last one…

She immediately stood up upon recognizing the boy's face. He watched with a neutral expression as she approached him, and when she stood face-to-face with the teen, she slapped him harshly in the face (exactly in the spot where he had the bandage). He didn't move from the position his head had turned, to the right, and all was strangely silent.

"How could you do that to Shuu!" Jodie finally yelled. No one dared interrupt the raging woman. Kaien allowed her to continue. "He was doing his job! He wasn't hurting you in any way; he just wanted to get a new lead! He didn't deserve this!" she said, waving her arm frantically in the direction of Shuuichi.

"I know that, and I regret that it happened, but at least he didn't die. You should be thankful. I don't expect any kind of forgiveness, but for the sake of this investigation, it would be nice if we could temporarily put our differences aside. We have the same goal," Kaien said lifelessly as he continued to stare off to the right where his face had been turned from the impact. After a few more moments of silence, he turned his eyes on her. "Do we have a deal?"

Jodie seemed reluctant, but she had also calmed. She had been able to take her anger out on someone, and was feeling quite a bit better now. She finally agreed, and things seemed to slowly return to a semi-normal state.

"Ahem. So… we need to come up with a plan. Shuuichi mentioned something on the phone, but said you could probably expand on it better, Kaien-kun," James said, setting things in motion. Kaien glanced at Shuuichi, who only met his gaze from the corner of his eye. He smiled, glad that the small agent was giving him a chance.

"Well, we have here the genuine Kaitou KID, and unfortunately for him, my brother is going to want him dead. _Fortunately _for us, this could prove to our advantage. Kaito would make an excellent lure for my brother. I have nearly zero doubt that he wouldn't take the bait if he was given the chance. He likes to finish what he starts, or in this case, finish what I started. He'll be after all of us, but Kaito has the best shot at getting away unscathed," he started. The agents listened intently as he went on.

"I trust that you would be able to come up with a trick or two to keep yourself prepared, Kaito?" the teen grinned in response, which was all Kaien needed to continue. "I have faith that no harm will come to Kaito with careful planning and preparation. What we need to do is have him plan a heist. I can guarantee that my brother will attend, and he will do everything in his power to take Kaito down. We should have a sniper on the roof, its going to be our best opportunity for a kill. If it would be possible, two snipers would be excellent. I can take one of those positions, we would just need another to take on the side opposite of me in case one of us doesn't have a shot."

"We can have that arranged," James said. Kaien nodded.

"Good. We'll also want to have agents on the ground. Your best way of identifying him is by trying to find someone that looks quite a bit like me, only about nine years older. He has the same color hair, _thanks to a no good witch," _he said, adding the last part under his breath, "and hazel-colored eyes. If you do see him, be absolutely careful. Don't do anything that might warn him, do not approach him, and do not shoot. Especially if he is in the crowd." They continued discussing the finer details as the night wore on, and by the time the five left, they had accomplished much. As soon as Kaito was well enough to go out as KID, they would set their plans in motion.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"I'm fine. I can walk without a limp, see watch!" Kaito exclaimed, showing Kaien just how well he could walk now. He had been going through a pretty intense physical therapy in order to get better quicker. Kaien told him to take his time, but Kaito would not listen to him. He wanted to help, and he pushed himself pretty hard to do it. He wasn't completely healed, but he was well enough to move around without crutches or limping, as Kaito was now showing off.

"Fine, fine. Go tell James, then," Kaien said. Kaito cheered and called up the older man. With a few words and whines later, Kaito and Kaien sat in the hotel room that James was using. Jodie, Camel, Conan, Hattori (yes, he had gone home, but he came back just a few days prior), and Shuuichi were all sitting in the main area. Quite a few other agents had managed to squeeze into the surprisingly large room as well, and were standing or sitting in various areas. Kaito was going through his plan, having been planning it for the past month on his own time. He laid out the blueprints of the building that was holding the jewel he had chosen to target.

"When did you want to do this?" James finally asked the thief. Kaito thought for a moment.

"A week would be good I think. It gives me a week to prepare what I'm doing, and you guys to prepare what you're doing," he said. Everyone nodded in agreement, and so it was set. They would move in seven days time.

Five days later found Kaien walking down the street. He had made a visit to Vermouth, since for the past few days he hadn't seen her at all. He kept her in the dark, for the most part. He didn't like her knowing everything he was up to, though he was confident she wouldn't tell. It wasn't really in her nature. She liked to keep dirty secrets to herself. He sighed. She had been just as annoying as usual, but for whatever reason he didn't cut her out of his life like he should. He didn't understand why, but he didn't really want to. As infuriating as the blonde woman could be sometimes, he just couldn't.

He walked slowly. He was tired, having not slept for three nights straight. He didn't like to admit it, but he was stressing. He wanted to catch his brother so badly, and there was about a quarter of a chance that he would end up shooting him. Another quarter went to the sniper on the roof that would be opposite him, the third went to any and all of the agents on the ground, and the last… the last quarter went to the possibility of his escape. It wasn't unlikely, and that's what worried him the most.

Had he not been so tired, and so lost in thought, Kaien probably would have noticed the shadowy figure approaching behind him. Unfortunately, he didn't until the person was practically upon him. He turned his head just in time to be hit with some blunt object in the head, and after that, everything turned black.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Where's Kaien? He was supposed to be here by now for one last run through. We only have two more days, what is he thinking?" Jodie rambled. They had been waiting for the boy an hour now, and Conan was getting a bad feeling.

"I'll call him," Kaito volunteered, pulling out his cell phone and dialing. They stood in silence as Kaito listened to the ring over the line. After a few moments, it went to voicemail. He pulled the phone away from his face and looked down at it with an odd expression.

"Weird… he always answers my calls," he said out loud.

"Not good," Hattori said, speaking Conan's mind. What could have happened to him since they last saw him? It couldn't have been more than eight hours ago that they had seen the blue eyed boy. Kaito called again.

"It went straight to voicemail this time," he said, his tone growing increasingly more worried. The group shared looks of uncertainty. Surely nothing bad happened to him… right?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kaien groaned as he came back to the world of consciousness. _What happened?_

He opened his eyes, but couldn't see anything. It was pitch black wherever he was, and he couldn't move. He could feel that his hands were secured behind his back by handcuffs. To ensure he wouldn't escape, he was also sitting on top of a chair, his arms cuffed behind the back of it. His legs were surprisingly unbound, which he was happy for, though it didn't help him much.

His eyes adjusted a little to the darkness. The room around him was fairly empty. The walls were a dark gray color – cement, as was the floor. He struggled a bit with the handcuffs, but to no avail. He sighed at the situation. This wasn't exactly a good time to be kidnapped, he was needed elsewhere. How long had he been unconscious anyways? And who had managed to get him anyways? He tried to remember anything he had seen before he blacked out, but he hardly even remembered where he had been at the time, he was so tired then. How was he supposed to remember a face he probably hadn't even seen?

Seemingly in answer to his question, the one door in the room opened, and in walked the last person Kaien wanted to see.

"Damnit," he cursed as the hazel-eyed man entered the room.

"Long time no see, little brother," he said coolly with a frightening grin on his face.

"Couldn't you have waited a few days to kidnap me? I have things to do," Kaien said in irritation. Ryan chuckled in response.

"Just the kind of thing I would expect you to say, little brother. But no, I couldn't wait. I have something for you," he said. He walked closer, slowly but surely. Kaien watched growing increasingly more worried at the look that his brother was giving him.

_Oh sh-_

* * *

_I like cliffies. Hahahaha. So yeah.. next chapter is the one I was talking about. It's going to up my rating.. I warn you now that it will be for mature readers only. I will specifically add markers for when its safe for you other readers, because the entire chapter won't be like that. So yeah.. _

_On another note.. if anyone can guess the name of this song, I will love you forever and give you huggies (no.. not the diapers) and cookies. No cheating though! Search engines are off limits_

"_There's static on the airwaves.. I'll try to find the light through all this haze. I can't find the words that I'm trying to say, so try to forget me as I walk away."_

_Annnnd go!_


	13. Chapter 13

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer:** _If I owned Detective Conan, it wouldn't be nearly as good. _

**Summary:** …_bad things happen. _

**Warning: **_Mature content. Blood, gore, language. Incestual references. Hints of rape. You've been warned. _

**Notes: **_Spring break came and went. I went to my very first anime convention, and I LOVED it. I met Vic Mignogna and Crispin Freeman :D I would have met J. Michael Tatum too but my mom was getting restless (we were supposed to get a hotel and go the next day too, but she didn't end up reserving a room! Wtf!) Next time I'm cosplaying, for certain. _

_Anyways, sorry for taking so long to update. I don't have any good excuses. I was lazy all of spring break. And I've been playing World of Warcraft -sheepish smile-_

_And I'm sorry there's not much of Shuu or Conan in this chapter. I honestly didn't intended to overwhelm it with my OCs, but I ended up doing that anyways! ): Please forgive me!_

_**The mature stuff is not required to be read. You will still understand the story if you skip over it (I hope..)**_

* * *

"What are you doing?" Kaien asked as his brother moved in closer to him. The older simply gave him a smile, one that Kaien knew to be trouble, and continued. He struggled against his bonds, but it was no use – as if his brother would ever half-ass anything in life, let alone allow him a way to escape.

"I admit, I'm disappointed in you. I trusted you to kill that FBI agent and his little detective companion. You disobeyed. And then, to top it all off, you were so incredibly _easy _to capture. What do you _think _I'm doing?" Kaien looked on as his brother was now leaning over him, his eyes seeming to glow red in the dim lighting. His face seemed set in a permanent scowl, and Kaien couldn't help but shudder. "Take a look around, little brother."

Kaien did as he was instructed and gave a cursory glance around the room. To his horror, he realized what he hadn't noticed before. Blood splattered the gray walls almost artistically – in a grotesque sort of way. Human limbs and body parts lay discarded along the floor. Pools of blood dotted and connected on the concrete beneath him. In the far corner, behind where he sat, two tables were set up parallel each other. On one table, Kaien could clearly see the body of a young girl – she was probably no older than seventeen at best. She could go to his school, for all he knew. She was alive, seemingly untouched by his demon of a brother yet. She watched silently as the exchange before her took place, duct tape secured over her mouth to keep her from making any noise.

On the table beside her was another body, this one though was most certainly _not _living. This body would not have a discernible gender if it weren't for her face. The skull cap had been completely removed, and the brain it had once shielded was shredded into small bits. The woman's face – obviously older than her young neighbor, probably in her early to mid-thirties – was permanently stuck in an expression of true horror and pain. Her mouth was taped, much like the other girl's, and her eyes were wide with fear. There was no life in those now misty eyes.

The woman's torso was torn away, as if someone had just been doing an autopsy on her. What Kaien supposed were her intestines lay on the floor beside her table – picked apart and discarded. Kaien analyzed that Ryan must have been doing his "autopsy" on the woman while she was still alive. Pure torture.

He finally managed to tear his eyes away from the gruesome sight to glare up at the man smirking evilly above him.

"You're a sadistic bastard," he spit out, loathing laced heavily in his voice. Ryan only bent down, his face now inches from the younger male.

"Perhaps, but haven't you always been curious about the anatomy of a human? And I'm sure you've always wanted to know what it was like to slowly slice open the flesh of a living being. It's so different than that of a dead person – it's almost too _easy. _And watching the life leave them so painfully slowly, it's _wondrous_! Would you like to see? I can show you. I can show you what it all looks like before I do it to you," he replied, his tone seeming sincerely fascinated by the aspect.

Kaien registered the meaning of his words, and his eyes immediately widened in a state of panic as Ryan stood up straight and walked around him over to the tables where the remaining girl lay. She too realized what he was about to do, and struggled helplessly against the restraints on her arms and legs that kept her strapped to the table. Ryan made sure to rotate Kaien's chair so that he could clearly see everything he was about to do.

"No! Stop, you fucking psycho! Get away from her!" he yelled out, desperate now to get loose of his bonds. He rocked dangerously in the chair as Ryan approached the girl, eyes gleaming as he looked up at Kaien's pathetic struggling form. He gave the younger a terrifyingly maniacal grin as he picked up a scalpel from the small medical tray beside him.

"The more you cry, the worse it will become. So why don't you just lie still for me, love?" he said in a soothing voice. The effect was anything but soothing, needless to say, as the girl panicked. One last glance at the wide, icy blue eyes of his baby brother was all he needed to begin.

Muffled screams ensued as Kaien continued begging him to stop.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Two days. Only two days until the planned heist, and no word from their coordinator. Kaien had mysteriously disappeared at some point, and now wasn't answering _any _of Kaito's calls! The teen magician was starting to become panicky, and the FBI agents rather annoyed at the boy's rambling as he continued worrying about the missing criminal.

"What if something bad happened? What if he's hurt? What can we do without him? Do we go on with the plan? Who's going to take his place on the roof? Is everything going to work? Who am I kidding? We can't do this without him! Auuughhh, what are we going to do?! What if he-,"

"Kuroba, shut _up_!" Shuuichi finally snapped. The previously rambling boy closed his mouth and looked on with wide eyes at the small agent. "If all else fails, _I _can take his place. The plan won't change."

"B-but," Kaito stuttered gracefully, "you're.. well.. mini! Chibified! Shrunken! Tiny! How are you going to be able to handle that big gun?" his tirade earned him a rather vicious glare from the olive-eyed boy, which made him shut up.

"I can manage," he assured. Kaito nodded slowly, and allowed himself to relax somewhat. He felt all out of sorts. Everything was so much more complicated now that he had become wrapped up in all this BO business. Why couldn't he just go back to his relatively simple life of chasing after Pandora? _Simple, hah! _

He sighed, trying to stay positive. Kaien was probably sleeping at home, or something. He'd been working so hard these past few days, and had been putting up with Kaito's personality – all the tricks and pent up energy as he went through all that strenuous physical therapy. Along with that, staying up all night working out the kinks in their plan and making absolutely _sure _that Kaito would be safe the entire time. _He's such a caring person, it's hard to believe he's done all he claims to have done._

The atmosphere wasn't one of confidence, nor was it in any sort of high spirit. Everyone was down, anxious, and feeling unprepared for what was to come. Kaito frowned. He was supposed to be the one that made everyone feel _better_, not worse!

He pulled something out of his pocket, and moments later smoke exploded around the room. A thick Osakan accent could be heard cursing as Heiji found himself sporting all new brightly colored hair. Kaito could almost hear the collective sigh of relief as the tension in the room seemed to melt away, if not only momentarily. He grinned proudly at having accomplished his goal as the tan-skinned teen in front of him began yelling at him, and a chase ensued.

He realized then just how much he had needed this.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kaien had seen horrible things in his life – he killed his own mother and father for god's sake – but never had he ever been forced to watch such pure _torture._ His head pounded from all of the yelling he had done, protesting with every fiber of his being the cruel acts his brother was forcing him to witness.

The young girl had settled into a terrified quivering mess as Ryan brought the scalpel down to her milky white skin. He traced patterns, only touching the surface with the barest of brushes, as if uncertain where he should begin. He examined her body, head to toe, before cutting away at the fabric of her shirt. As the cool air touched her now bare torso, the girl shivered. Her actions only made Ryan's grin more prominent as he continued to trace her body just barely with the sharp tip. As he began pressing a little harder, small lines of blood appeared on the surface of her skin. She whimpered, as if knowing that this pain was only the beginning of what was to come.

And that was exactly it. After he was satisfied with the thin lines now covering much of her upper body, he set the scalpel back on the silver tray. He eyed the remaining instruments carefully before he made his decision. He gave a fleeting look to Kaien, who shuddered at the evil expression before he picked up what Kaien knew to be a –

Rib splitter.

Kaien didn't want to think about what he was seeing. The girl was in so much pain, and death was most certainly not coming fast enough for her. He can't remember when the muffled sounds of agony finally ceased, because Ryan never stopped. He was absorbed in the dissection of the girl's body. He was so absorbed, in fact, that he never once looked up at his brother since he had initially picked up the rib splitter.

Kaien was nearly ready to pass out from the disturbing scene before him when his brother seemed to be finally finished. The man stepped back and seemed to be admiring his work. Bones jutted out of shredded flesh. Once milky white skin was now stained with the bright color of blood, still fresh. Her torso was pulled apart, much like the other woman's was. All of the ribs were broken, and the heart was removed, lying innocently on a side-table. Muscle tendons dangled over the edges of the table-bed, dripping blood in small rivulets on the floor. Tissue and fat along with various miscellaneous organs had been taken out and cast aside for what Ryan considered to be the more _interesting _things.

Kaien gagged, the smell of the massacre had become progressively stronger and harder to ignore. He finished eyeing the sight, and moved his blank gaze over to the blue eyed teen on the chair. He tilted his head, in a manner Kaien felt was much too innocent for such a sadistic bastard, and took a few steps towards him.

He kneeled down in front of Kaien, his face once again only inches away from the other male's. "Did you enjoy it as much as I did, brother?" he breathed. Kaien glared, but didn't respond. Ryan looked annoyed as he leaned in even closer, his left hand moving up to grab Kaien's face painfully. The younger tried to pull away, but he wasn't in any sort of position to do so. He kicked out a leg at his brother, but he dodged and sat himself on Kaien's lap, effectively ceasing all movement.

"You would have been great, you know. Other than your obviously weak personality, you were absolutely perfect for the Organization. They would have coveted you much like I did. Much like I _do_. I don't blame you for what you did to our parents. I must say that I can appreciate the artistic value of that.. _mess _you made of them. There was so much blood I didn't even know how it all could have belonged to just them! It was pure genius! You've always had that potential," he said, purring the last sentence. He closed in on the unsuspecting boy beneath him, pressing his cold lips against the younger's forcefully. Kaien struggled, doing anything but kiss the disgusting man back.

He finally pulled away, smirking despite the lack of response he had received. Kaien didn't like that look.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"Is everyone in place?" Jodie muttered inconspicuously into her receiver. There was a moment of silence before James responded in the affirmative. "And our dove?" she continued, their codename for KID.

"He's in place as well. He's preparing his entrance." Jodie rolled her eyes. KID was much too flashy for her tastes, but she had to admit that these heists were interesting. She shuffled her feet as she suddenly felt a wave of anxiety hit her. Would everything work as they had planned it to? What was _that boy _up to? Was he..

No. She couldn't think about that now. She shook her head to rid herself of the thought of an injured Kaien. And then, she facepalmed. Why did she care anyways?! He had tried to kill her Shuu! Earning odd looks from the fans surrounding her, she gave a sheepish smile before stepping away.

"Five minutes," came the smooth voice of the Kaitou KID. He sounded utterly calm, despite the situation. How on earth was he able to do that?

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ryan looked down at what Kaien assumed was a watch and growled.

"Damn it," he cursed, glancing down at his still blood soaked shirt. Kaien's head leaned back over the top of the chair. His face was even, not showing the obvious pain or any of the countless feelings he currently harbored, despite the heavy panting he was emitting. Ryan looked down at him, glaring as if whatever was wrong was his fault, before sighing and then allowing his trademark smirk to once again adorn his features.

"You're in luck, it seems that if I don't leave now, I'll be late for an.. appointment. You'll just have to wait for another time for your turn on the table, but don't worry, I'll come back for you soon. With a friend, if things go the way I plan." Kaien knew he must be talking about KID's heist. He struggled with renewed ferocity as his brother's hand came down upon his cheek and stroked the soft skin gently. He chuckled as the younger pulled away viciously.

"Don't go anywhere, this shouldn't take too long," he uttered darkly before laughing quietly once more and leaving the room, just like that. He was gone. Kaien was alone in the cold, damp basement. He had long grown accustomed to the smell of the two bodies that were still in the room with him, and no longer seemed to see them, as if they were some sort of ordinary decoration.

He breathed deeply, sucking in a sharp breath and refusing to let out any kind of emotion. He didn't want to let that bastard win. Kaien wasn't broken yet. His throat burned as he choked back any threat of tears. Kaien didn't cry. Sasakis' never cried. Ever. It was one of the first things their parents ever taught them. He wanted to curl up in a ball and lie down in a corner, but the stupid handcuffs kept him from doing so.

He didn't know how much time passed by this way. His backside ached, and the uncomfortable chair wasn't helping any. He felt drowsy, but couldn't allow sleep to take him. Not when he was here. The threat of his brother returning was too high. He didn't want to be asleep if he did come back. He wished for a moment that he could just give up, but even if he _could_, his damned pride wouldn't allow him. _Tch, it's a wonder that I can even say I have any pride left._

He felt like unconsciousness was taking over, regardless of his attempts to stave it off. Blurriness filled his vision and his eyes shut of their own accord. Just as he felt the darkness start to take hold, a loud _bang! _rang out through the room. The sound reverberated against the cement walls, and his head snapped up. He craned his neck, hoping to be able to see whatever it was that was coming. He was able to make out the silhouette of a figure in the doorway, but he couldn't tell who it was. The person treaded down the stairs, but before they were even in front of him, Kaien's world turned completely black, and the world of the unconscious took over.

* * *

_Honestly, I'm not a huge fan of incest. It was kind of weird writing something like that, even though it was only mentioned. _

_No, Kaien's brother isn't in love with him, and there is no relationship. Don't freak out. _

_My hands just pretty much went with the flow, and that's what ended up. Sorry if any of you didn't like it. I told you it was optional!  
I was really worried about this chapter. Let me know if it was okay or not (If you read it, that is, haha.) Or if there's anything you think I need to work on. _


	14. Chapter 14

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer:** _For the last time! I don't own Detective Conan, so just leave me alone already! Oh.. hello readers. I was just having a friendly conversation with that nice lawyer over there. He doesn't seem to understand the whole "disclaimer" thing. _

**Summary:** _The trap is set. Let the heist begin. _

**Notes: **_As little as I've been updating, I swear to you all I will not give up on this story until it is finished, even if it takes me years to do it. I do have a lot more planned for this story in the big picture, and hopefully this arch will be done soon so I can start working on the next one. Please continue with your lovely encouragement, and feel free to critique me in any way you see fit. I love to hear from you, even if it's to say all the things I did wrong. No criticism is bad criticism; it all helps me as a writer in the long run. _

_As a side note, I realize my OC has been getting a lot of screen-time, and I never intended for him to take over the story. Trust me; there will be a lot more Shuu in the future! Especially in the next arch!_

* * *

"_Ladies and gentlemen!"_

Darkness. His mind was completely blank. Darkness flowed all around him. He recognized that he was coming back into consciousness, but no light filtered in through his closed eyelids. Wherever he was, it was dark there too. He heard a soft yet demanding voice calling out to him, though not quite sure what it was that it was saying. The voice was decidedly female. It lacked that rough quality of a man's voice, and it was most definitely not childlike.

Even though he could tell the voice was impatient and probably angry, the sound of it was soothing. It calmed his aching head, though the rest of his body continued to burn. He ignored it as he began finally trying to open his eyes and get a glimpse of his savior – though he hated to admit that he even _had _to be saved.

His eyelids cracked open, and he was met with a blissfully dark room. He silently thanked whoever brought him there, rather than somewhere brighter that would undoubtedly blind him.

"Finally," the voice said, now much more familiar to him as his mind fully awoke. Kaien turned his gaze to where the voice came from, and was met with the glare of an angry bleach blonde woman. Her bright blue eyes met his own equally icy colored orbs and he nearly flinched away from the intensity of it.

"Don't sound so relieved that I'm alive," he croaked out, wincing at the sound of his own voice.

"This is the second time I've had to bandage you up. You should be grateful, not whiny," she retorted, taking his jaw in her hand and twisting his head back and forth; to inspect for more damage, he supposed. He glanced down at himself after she released him, and noticed that he wasn't wearing what he was before. He flushed, which was odd for him, but the idea of _Vermouth _dressing him was just embarrassing to no end. She noticed this, of course.

"I had to do something about your.. lower half as well. I couldn't very well leave just the one injury unattended. You should thank me, I have better things to be doing with my time than helping a little brat like you. I will say one thing though, I've seen a lot of things in my life, but your brother is one disturbed man."

"You must understand quite well why I don't exactly get along with him, then. He's always been different. Your stupid Syndicate seems to enjoy his… uniqueness, though." She gave him a look, but he ignored it as he stood up. He winced from pain, but overlooked it. He stretched his muscles tenderly, arms raising high above him, reaching for the ceiling. "What time is it?"

"You still have time to get to the KID heist, if that's what you're wondering. It's just started, and we're nearby," she responded. He was a bit irritated that she could read him so well, but he let that feeling go as he made for the door to his right.

"Well then, let's waste no time," he said with a smirk. She raised one manicured eyebrow in interest before following behind him. _This should be amusing. _

~~~linebreak!~~~

"The Dove is moving," Jodie mumbled, more so to herself than the others listening. She was worried, she would admit. She didn't want to trust Kaien, the boy who had so easily attempted to kill her friend, but she knew that somewhere within him he held good intentions. He didn't seem like the other members of the Syndicate. He was very up front and blunt with his emotions and feelings, and with information. He had been kind enough to give them what he knew that they didn't already, but it didn't seem like enough to Jodie. And now, after all that, he had gone missing. After all the planning and preparations, he wasn't here to do his job.

Something must have happened to him, and it irritated her knowing that she was worried for him. She watched absently as KID called out attention to his adoring fans. Everyone was looking up at him in awe and excitement. She turned her gaze back to the crowd, searching through all the unfamiliar faces for the one that didn't belong. His name was Ryan, a half-American man with honey colored eyes and light brown hair. He apparently looks quite a bit like his younger brother, and that was just what Jodie was looking for.

She scanned every male in the crowd, which were fortunately a lot fewer in number than the females.

"_I see him," _Conan's voice filtered into her ears. Her gaze snapped up and she was the quickest to respond.

"Where? Position?"

"_Far left of the crowd, to the east. He's walking the perimeter," _he explained. Jodie moved her gaze in that direction, immediately catching the figure dressed in all black edging around the crowd. He was looking up at Kaito just as everyone around him, but he was surely still aware of his surroundings.

"_Nobody makes a move, yet," _James' voice said this time. Jodie twitched from where she stood on the ground, just itching to get to the man. She held herself back, crossing her arms over her chest and tapping her foot impatiently. She didn't let the man out of her sight, fixating her eyes solely on him. So she didn't see it coming until it was right directly in her line of sight.

~~~linebreak~~~

"He took off," Kaien said as he walked next to Vermouth in the nearly deserted street. They were getting closer to the heist location, where the city's citizens were all most likely at. It left the rest of the streets eerily empty.

"Yep," Vermouth responded absently. She didn't seem too interested in conversation at the moment, but Kaien knew she was looking forward to the events that would be occurring shortly. They turned the corner and immediately spotted the large mass of people gathered for the heist. Their cheers could probably be heard for miles, and the sound only got more deafening as they approached. Vermouth pulled him by the arm into a building that had been closed for the heist. "We'll have a better view of the crowd from above," she said as she managed to get the glass doors unlocked. Kaien didn't bother to ask how.

Upon a high level balcony, the two overlooked KID's audience. The massive turnout was impressive, as always. Kaito didn't fail them in the slightest. Kaien watched the white-clad teen briefly as he swooped into the targeted building and disappeared from sight, seemingly straight through the wall. Kaien was mildly impressed, but didn't let his thoughts stray. He scanned the crowd, just as Vermouth did beside him.

Almost at the same moment, the two noticed a dark clothed individual moving around the edge of the crowd. He was moving slowly, so as to not arouse suspicion, but Kaien could tell he was beginning to make his move. Without waiting for Vermouth to say anything, Kaien sprinted back down the way they came, opting for the stairs, taking them two at a time and jumping over the last few of every landing.

When he finally reached the bottom, he only increased his pace, racing out the glass double doors.

Meanwhile, in the seconds after Kaien had left her side, Vermouth spotted another.

"Brandy? What…," she blinked, staring down at the woman on the far opposite side of Ryan. She would watch him briefly, then scan the crowd, as if she were… looking out for him. The blond sighed, "Always a challenge. I suppose I should do something about this, then," she muttered to herself, turning on her heel and following Kaien's path back down to the main floor, at a much more leisurely pace.

~~~linebreak~~~

He moved quickly through the bodies, trying to reach the spot he had last seen his brother at while simultaneously remaining inconspicuous. Upon arriving, he spun around, looking for his near exact replica. He spotted him, not far from where he was currently standing, looking up distractedly at where Kaito had previously disappeared. He grinned happily at his luck.

Racing up to him, he began pulling out his gun, hiding it from the possible view of any onlookers. He pulled down the cap Vermouth had given him over his face, and pulled up his hoodie over it, further obscuring his features as he approached. It wasn't until he was right next to his brother that the latter noticed him, but it was too late by that point.

~~~linebreak~~~

Jodie's eyes, still fixated upon Ryan, became filled with confusion as her vision was suddenly and abruptly obscured by the body of someone very familiar. If she hadn't just spent the last hour looking for someone with the exact same features, she wouldn't have been able to tell who it was. But as that had been the case, she recognized him almost instantly.

"Kaien, what's he…," she muttered, confused.

"_Jodie?_" James called in her ear, "_What's wrong?_" She watched intently, and then she saw it; a very slight glimmer of silver, reflecting the lights surrounding.

"K-kaien-kun! It's Kaien-kun, he has a gun!" she whispered franticly.

"_What?_" Conan's voice cut through anyone else's in a loud yell. Jodie didn't respond, she was already moving, acting on instinct alone as she began running towards Kaien and his brother. _What are you doing, Kaien-kun? This wasn't the plan!_

~~~break~~~

"Hey, what are you doing out here? Surely you aren't interested in the Kaitou KID?" Vermouth said smoothly, approaching her colleague with a grin. The black haired woman turned her attention to Vermouth, just as she knew she would, and tilted her head.

"Vermouth? What are _you _doing here?" she asked curiously, bright blue eyes glinting brightly in the lit city square.

"Ah, ah! I asked first," the blonde responded, waving her index finger in the air in front of her. The ebon haired woman narrowed her eyes, glaring holes into Vermouth. The two never did get along, and for good reason. If Vermouth appeared, it usually meant something was up.

"I'm doing what any good sister would do, looking out for my brother," she stated firmly. Vermouth was about to speak again, when a loud scream interrupted her, followed by movement, and subsequently more screaming.

"What the-," Brandy started.

"Someone's been shot! Hurry, call an ambulance!" a man yelled. Brandy's eyes widened, and she ran off, trying to get through the crowd to see what had happened. Vermouth, on the other hand, smiled serenely and walked the opposite direction. She'd leave him be, he wouldn't be needing her help anyways.

_

* * *

_

_Tada! What'd you think? Suspenseful enough for ya?_


	15. Chapter 15

**A Small Problem**

**Disclaimer:** _This is a disclaimer. Because I don't own DC. And I never will. _

**Summary:** _Fillerrrr._

**Notes: **_FF pissed all over my breakers in all my chapters. All of them! As you probably noticed, the cruddy ones in the last chapter were done in haste, because I had already posted the chapter before I realized. It's a shame that this site is getting worse, and not better. _

_In other news, you guys aren't a very responsive bunch, I only got two reviews D:. It's kind of depressing. Thank you **MarieRavenclaw**, though, for faithfully reviewing every chapter. You are truly amazing, my dear (: You keep my spirit up, even when I have barely a string of will to continue writing._

-o-o-o-

Akai Shuuichi perched upon a rooftop with an oversized sniper rifle resting in his arms. The rifle wasn't _actually _oversized, but in comparison to the recently shrunken FBI agent, it was far too large. It was almost too big for him to even balance, but he managed by lying flat on the cement of the roof. He probably would have done this anyways, to lessen the chance he would be seen up there. It would be awfully suspicious if an eight year old kid was found on the roof of a building conveniently near a Kaitou KID heist with a loaded sniper rifle. Needless to say, being discovered wasn't an option.

He peered through the scope, checking the crowd. He scanned every face, every person he could possibly see for the one he was looking for, but he didn't have to wait too long. Conan's voice filtered in through his comms. unit, giving out the location of their target. Shuuichi immediately turned his gun in the same direction, searching through faces until he came upon the one he was looking for.

He kept his gaze trained on the man, the one that looked far too much like their companion – the one that was _supposed _to be there with them but had mysteriously disappeared. Shuuichi didn't worry too much about the boy's disappearance. He was confident in his abilities, regardless of his current size, and trusted the others well enough to know as certainly as he could that things would turn out okay.

But Shuuichi never had a chance to shoot. And neither did any of the others that had arms trained and ready to fire on their target, because someone beat them to it.

He didn't see them at first, because he had eyes only for the man he had his scope focused on. But then, out of nowhere, someone blocked his once unobstructed view. He started, unsure what was going on until it happened. It only took a few seconds for the body that blocked his view moved, and was suddenly running away from the area. His view now unhindered, Shuuichi found that he could no longer see his target. He panicked a little on the inside, wondering where he could have possibly gone in such a short period of time, when Jodie's voice called franticly through his speaker.

"He-he was shot! He's been shot! James!" she called, surely panicking even more so than Shuuichi. Who, despite the thoughts running rampant through his mind, lay calmly where he was and awaited direction.

"Did you see who-," James started, but he was cut off quickly by Jodie's response.

"It was Kaien. It had to be!" she said. She knew it was, it looked exactly like him. And exactly like the man he had just shot.

"Where was he shot?" Conan asked, his voice ragged. He was obviously running.

"In the head," Jodie replied.

"Then get out of there Jodie," James managed to say calmly, "We need to remove ourselves from the area as quickly as possible. We don't want the Japanese police to find us loitering about in this situation." Jodie nodded her head, even though James couldn't see her, and turned on her heel, despite the great urge to run after the man whom she _knew _to be Kaien. The assassinator of their target.

**~*~B-R-E-A-K~*~**

Conan was tapping his pencil. _Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Ta-_

_Whack. _"Stop that," Haibara hissed, pulling her hand back after having hit Conan on the head and resting it on the table where it had been before. She leaned back in her chair, and continued doing her work mindlessly.

"Sorry, I just can't help it. It's been a _week _since the incident at the heist. Jodie and the FBI haven't found even the slightest trace of Kaien since… then. And Jodie is absolutely positive it was him," he vented in a hushed tone so no one could hear. He sighed, resting his forehead on his arms and closing his eyes. It didn't make any sense. Kaien had planned the entire heist with the FBI and Kuroba, and then he disappears, only to return and kill his brother anyways! What had gone on during the time he was gone? Had something happened to him, or had he simply changed his plans without telling anyone?

He tried to stop thinking about it and pulled his head up to start working again. As he did so, he glanced absentmindedly over to Shima. He didn't seem to look too worked up, from what Conan could see. He wore his usual carefully guarded, blank expression, successfully hiding any emotion or thought that Conan might be able to read. Sighing once more, he went back to his work.

When class was finally over, he found himself walking sluggishly at the back of the group. Ayumi was discussing animatedly what she wanted to do today, and once again he wasn't listening. He was too busy thinking. Shima stood beside him, also seeming a bit slower today. Conan assumed he was thinking along the same lines as he had been for the past week. Not knowing was infuriating, and quite frustrating.

He glanced absently across the street to where Ran and Sonoko would usually appear, and found that today they had another person with them. His eyes widened considerably upon seeing the familiar figure of Kaien, or Kaisuke as he was to be called in public, walking with the two girls.

He nudged Shima in the ribs with his elbow hastily, who looked up and immediately caught what Conan was looking at. Shima's expression mirrored his own as the two gazed on at the slightly worse-for-wear boy that strode slowly down the sidewalk.

Kaien's icy blue eyes lifted, catching Conan's as if he felt the eyes of the younger on him. The blue eyed boy smiled, gently as if it was painful for him, and sent a discreet wave in his direction.

Upon noticing Conan and Shima's distraction, Haibara stopped and looked back at them, effectively calling out to the attention of the rest of the Shounen Tantei-dan as well. Ayumi was the first to vocalize her thoughts.

"Kaisuke-niisan!" she exclaimed, waving at the older boy. He seemed a bit caught off guard at all the sudden attention, and Ran and Sonoko immediately looked over at the six children.

"Oh, Ayumi-chan! Hello, everyone!" Ran yelled across the street, and the three teens (two of which looked quite a bit reluctant) crossed the street at the crosswalk and approached.

"You've been gone for a while, Kaisuke-niisan. What happened to you?" Ayumi asked. The six children had passed by Ran and Sonoko every day the past week, and hadn't seen the older boy once until now. Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko questioned Conan daily about the whereabouts of the boy that they had, for whatever reason, grown attached to since the day he had helped out with their search of the lost cat.

"Oh, nothing to worry about. I just had a bit of a family emergency, is all. Everything's fine, though," he explained, smiling kindly at the inquiring girl.

"But your face!" Mitsuhiko called out, pointing out the large bandage on his cheek, "You're injured!"

"Oh, this? It's nothing. I just fell, no big deal," Kaisuke waved off. Conan and Shima knew that the injury was actually from the explosion quite a while back. Before he had gone missing prior to the heist, he had come to meetings either wearing makeup, or that bandage. Conan assumed that he wore the makeup if he ever thought someone would see him, but it didn't explain why he had given up on it now. Or how he knew how to successfully cover the burn on his face with makeup in the first place. If Conan had wanted to do something like that, he would have had to ask his mother for help.

Mitsuhiko didn't look convinced, but Ran was quick to intervene.

"Does anyone want ice cream? We were just on our way to get some, it's so hot out today!" she said, clapping her hands together enthusiastically. Ayumi, Mitsuhiko, and Genta cheered, and soon the large group was on their way.

Conan held back with Shima, Haibara, and Kaisuke. It was a bit odd looking, to say the least; three small 'children' staring up with blank, expectant expressions as they waited for the older teen to explain himself. Conan was the first to speak.

"What happened?" he asked quietly, lest the others in front of them hear.

"That isn't something I would like to talk about right now. This isn't exactly the ideal place to speak about such.. things," he said, not looking at them as he spoke.

"What did you tell Ran and Sonoko?" the small detective continued.

"Not much more than I told you just a moment ago," he said passively. Conan stared at the strange boy. He was confusing, utterly confusing. Nothing he said or did seemed to make sense anymore. Whose side was he on? Was he going to tell him what happened, eventually? Where had he holed himself up at for the past week?

The questions continued to cloud Conan's mind, all through their time at the ice cream parlor and until Ran decided it was time to go home and make dinner.

As she pulled him down the street by the hand, he cursed silently about not getting a chance to question Kaien that day. He would just have to try and talk to him tomorrow, then. Somehow.

_

* * *

_

SUCH A FILLER. Gahhh, I feel so ashamed. This is like.. the filler of all fillers. Nothing really happened at all! I hit a block. I need some sort of pillow in between this arc and the next one.. so.. just bare with me for the time being, okay?  
Leave some love. It helps.


	16. Chapter 16

**Disclaimer:** _I am a lowly college student living off financial aid and child support. No, I don't own Detective Conan. _

**Summary: **_Shuuichi gets answers._

**Notes: **_-is shot- I'm so sorryyyyyyyy for not updating. I usually hate when people take forever to update, but you have to understand, college really sucks! I'm already on my 3__rd__ essay in English, and have another one in Art History. And Math.. ughh don't even get me started.  
In other news, I cosplayed for the first time at Saboten-con on the 2__nd__, had so much fun! I was Will of the Abyss from Pandora Hearts, and my roomie was Alice. Good times..  
Now onwards!_

_

* * *

_

This wasn't the first time Shuuichi was in this situation. Only the terms were now marginally better, safer, less risk involved, and not quite as stupid. He had decided to follow Kaisuke, or Kaien rather, once again. He wanted the boy to explain what had happened. Usually, Shuuichi wouldn't mind too much. Everything that happened is now in the past and nothing could be done to fix it, but he found himself unusually curious.

He already had several ideas on why Kaien missed the heist. What he was more interested in was where he had been, how he managed to get away (if what Shuuichi was assuming was correct), and why he had appeared at the last minute to take the shot, when he should have been perfectly confident in their abilities.

Or perhaps that was just it. Perhaps he wasn't confident in the FBI at all. If that were the case, then was there anyone that he _did _trust? Obviously he didn't trust the Black Organization. There had to be someone… he wouldn't go back to his own home. Not now, at least. There were far too many people that would be looking for him. So who has he been boarding with? A friend? Probably not. Not even someone like Kaien would endanger someone close to him needlessly. Then who?

"Are you going to keep following me, Shuu-chan?" the boy's voice called out in a singsong manner. He twirled around, and met Shuuichi's gaze with his own piercing blue one. Perhaps he would have to sharpen his skills around this kid, because he certainly had a way of detecting Shuuichi, despite his training in avoiding just that.

"I'd prefer if you didn't call me that," the small agent replied, eyes not betraying his thoughts. Kaien pursed his lips in a pout, but his expression changed back into a grin soon after. He bent so that his face was level with Shuuichi's.

"Fiiiine, but that doesn't answer my question. In fact, why are you following me at all? Curious to know where I live? Or is stalking just your thing?" he let out a chuckle at Shuuichi's frustrated expression and straightened himself, digging his hands into the pockets of his pants.

"I have questions for you," the agent said, and Kaien rolled his eyes.

"I would love to take you to my humble abode, but I get the feeling you wouldn't like the company I keep. How about we go somewhere else, then?" he said, not waiting for the other to answer as he turned on his heel and began walking. Shuuichi struggled to keep up with the taller boy, his legs taking quick strides and nearly resorted to just jogging in order to keep pace. Fortunately, before he gave in to that particularly humiliating idea, the light haired boy turned down an alley and came to a stop at the end of it. Shuuichi rolled his eyes at the cliché choice.

"Oi, don't roll your eyes at me! This is as good a place as any, thank you very much," Kaien defended, glaring at the small agent before him. Shuuichi didn't bother to respond to him.

"So, you're wondering where I was and what happened, am I right?" Shuuichi nodded, "Well, it was no picnic, let me tell you. I had a slight… moment of weakness and my brother exploited it. He knocked me out while I was unaware and took me to some warehouse or other. I could probably lead the police back there, but it probably smells rather nasty in there now, he managed to torture two people down there in the time of my imprisonment."

"And you?" Shuuichi asked, with an eyebrow raised.

"Worse than torture, but I'll leave to your imagination. I also got to watch him dismember one of his prisoners. He said it'd be all the more better when it was my turn, fortunately Kaito's heist delayed that."

"And so he left you there, but how did you escape?" Shuuichi prodded him. Kaien laughed a little, obviously entertained at some internal dialogue.

"A friendly witch saved me and helped patch me up a bit. As soon as she was done, I came around to the heist to see how things were going. When I saw that my brother was still alive, I got a little bit… angry I suppose you could say. I probably could have held off a bit, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow." Shuuichi rolled his eyes once more.

"Going with the flow would not include recklessly firing a bullet into your brother's skull in a crowd full of spectators." Kaien laughed again.

"What can I say? He had it coming to him." His face turned serious then, throwing Shuuichi a little off guard. "This isn't over, though. We still have two more obstacles to overcome. The obvious being the rest of the BO, but there is one more person out there who knows what happened to my brother," he explained.

"And that is?"

"My older sister," he said, a chilling chuckle escaping his lips. "Some family, huh?"

**~*~B-R-E-A-K~*~**

Naturally, Shuuichi ended up telling Conan everything that Kaien had told him. He hadn't learned much more than he had already expected, and Conan seemed to think the same thing, but it was good to be certain. Conan asked about Kaien's sister, who was obviously not the same one that Kaien adored, but Shuuichi had no answers. Kaien had told him very little about his sister, except that her codename was Brandy and she was as tricky as anyone in the BO. He warned Shuuichi to watch out for her, because no doubt she would probably know something about him being as close to Ryan as she was

Conan spent his night wondering about Brandy. Did Haibara know of her? He certainly had never heard of her before. Perhaps she wasn't very active? Or maybe her operations were more secretive than the others. He wondered if he had unknowingly seen her at the heist. Certainly she would have approached Ryan after the gunshot went off, who else would be shooting? Would she come after Shuuichi? Or Haibara? Himself? Or would she solely be after her own brother? He was the one who shot Ryan in the first place.

He rubbed at his eyes in frustration, unable to sleep. Tomorrow would be a tiring day, indeed. Perhaps he would be able to get some investigating done after school.

* * *

_Really sorry this is so short, but I wanted to get this one more filler chapter in before I really cracked down on the next arc. I have ideas, but nothing solid yet. I'll have to do a little more planning to be certain. _

_In other news, does anyone really want pairings? I know I said this would be romanceless, and even though I'm asking doesn't mean there absolutely will be, but if there were, what would you want them to be? Leave a review with your opinions, please. Any couple is acceptable. _


	17. Chapter 17

**Disclaimer:** _The likelihood of me owning Detective Conan is the same as me meeting SHINee at SMtown Anaheim. Oh wait. That didn't happen. Guess I don't own Detective Conan. _

**Summary: **_More info. Storytime with Sasaki Kaien._

**Notes: **_I have no excuses. I honestly lost my muse for this story. I can't believe it's been almost two years. I know many of you may have given up on this story, but if you haven't, I thank you for sticking around and putting up with me._

* * *

Conan had already planned on doing some investigating; however, he had never intended to bring _all of the children. _He wasn't even planning on taking Haibara or Shuuichi, but that was how it turned out. First "Shima" insisted on being apart of whatever he was doing, and then Ayumi overheard and insisted on going too, and soon the entire Shounen Tantei were complaining and it was just a large headache.

He almost decided to just wait it off entirely, but Shuuichi told him as long as they were careful about where they were seen and how much they actually knew, everything would be fine. So, as the Shounen Tantei-dan walked down the street, they were making up things to tell the children. Conan had a nagging feeling about going to Teitan High, and so that was their first destination.

Their timing was spot on. Ran, Sonoko, and Kaien were leaving the school laughing about something or other. Today, instead of the bandage, Kaien was wearing makeup to cover his burn, and it was detailed. It wasn't smooth, untarnished skin like one would maybe expect, but it was lined with a scrape as long as the burn itself had been, though not nearly as wide. It was makeup on par with his mother, with Kaitou KID, and even…Vermouth. Had Kaien that same skill of disguise? He'd never really utilized it, that Conan had seen. He'd usually wear hats, hoodies, or change the color of his hair. This was something far beyond that, and it had Conan's mind whirring. Beside him, it was obvious that Shuuichi was zeroing in on the very same thing. Even Haibara was looking suspicious. But Conan knew this was to keep up appearances—if Ishida Kaisuke claimed to have taken a fall, and his face was perfectly fine and unblemished after the bandage was removed (which it would have to be, it couldn't stay on forever), then there would be questions.

Kaien was the first to spot them, as he often seemed to do, standing by the gates. Ayumi chattered happily with Mitsuhiko and Genta, and immediately all three perked up when they saw the teenagers approaching. By the look on Kaien's face, he knew what they were there for, and he definitely didn't look happy about it. By some form of luck, Ran suggested they all go out somewhere fun. Sonoko, probably more happy at the prospect of going somewhere interesting where there may or may not be cute guys, was enthusiastic in her response. Only Kaien seemed to be a bit hesitant to agree, but with six children and two teenaged girls to nag him there was no possible way out for him.

They left the high school, their first destination being the mall. Ayumi, Genta and Mitsuhiko walked in front with Ran and Sonoko shortly behind them, and the remaining four fell a few steps behind. Conan, not wanting to be overheard, decided to at least keep up somewhat of a front as he investigated.

"Kaisuke-niisan," he started, and immediately Kaien's face turned sour, though he looked away to try and hide it, "about your neechan. Is she very pretty?" Conan hoped that this question sounded more like 'tell me what she looks like, how old she is, and what to expect of her' to Kaien, and it seemed like it did as his expression scrunched as if he'd smelled something foul.

"Her name is Alice," he said, without trace of an accent in the pronunciation of her name, "she is very pretty but she's not very nice." It looked as though he had a hard time saying she was even mildly attractive, let alone _pretty _but since he was trying to be helpful, he ignored the part of himself that wanted to rant and rave about all of her flaws and faults. "She has the same eyes as me, but her hair is the blackest black you'd ever see." It sounded like a fairytale, the way he spoke, distancing himself as much as possible without drifting into a conversation too serious to be having with seven and eight year olds.

"Alice has always disliked children, so her and I didn't get along well when we were growing up. When she was a teenager, she started going by a nickname—Brandy. Mother and father called her it, they gave her everything she wanted because she was their pride and joy. They'd groomed her to be exactly like them, something that I couldn't be." He spoke of the Black Organization, of course, and the children knew this as they listened, eyes focused on him as he spoke, only glancing at the others now and again to make sure they were still not paying any attention.

"Unlike my little sister, Alice was born in the US, along with our brother Ryan. Maybe that was why mother and father loved them so much, though I was born there as well it wasn't nearly as 'home' to me as Japan. When Alice was a teen, Ryan-niisan a few years older than her, they were both sent to a special place where they could use their skills and talents and become better. For a long time after that, I hadn't seen them. When my parents passed away, and imouto* was sent away, Ryan came back into my life. I've told you that part of the story already, but not about neechan. Alice has always supported niisan in everything he does. She watches and learns from him, and protects him when he needs it. No doubt, his recent death has been… quite upsetting for her. She will most likely be very unpleasant to talk to now." Read as: she will be a wild bull, more or less. She won't stop until Kaien, and perhaps even KID who was indirectly (to her knowledge) involved in his death, are dead. Worse yet, Kaien wasn't sure how much Ryan had told her about him, so she could be quite aware of Shima and Conan and their alliance with Kaien.

"Is she very smart?" Conan prodded, wanting to know how perhaps he should be preparing for her eventual attack.

"Very," Kaien responded, looking down at the three to show them how serious he was. He lowered his voice quite a bit now, "Tactically, she is a master. She will predict all of our moves before we even make them. She will have several back up plans if one fails. She isn't like Ryan, who was cocky and never expected failure. Alice never assumes victory until she has it, and plans accordingly."

"What are you talking about so quietly back there?" Ran asked, and Kaien became very aware now of her sudden interest in their conversation. She had just stopped walking, and was now leaning her face towards Kaien's curiously. If he didn't know better, he'd say she was almost suspicious. Of Kaien.

"A video game," he answered smoothly, tone not quite changing from its previous seriousness, but not allowing himself to seem too over the top. They weren't talking about life and death. They were talking about video games.

Video games.

"Oh, something of Agasa's? Have you been playing with the kids lately?" she asked. Before Conan could even answer for him, one of the others interrupted him.

"No, we haven't seen Kaisuke-niisan at all other than yesterday with Ran-neechan and Sonoko-neechan," Ayumi said, and Mitsuhiko nodded to emphasize her words.

"He comes over sometimes to talk with Agasa hakase," Haibara quickly intervened, expertly smoothing the situation over. "They get along well. Sometimes he asks Kaisuke-niisan to test the games with me or Edogawa-kun." Ran looked appeased by this answer, but the rest of the Shounen Tantei looked quite upset by this news.

"Kaisuke-niisan plays with Ai-chan and Conan-kun when Ayumi isn't around?" the small girl asked, giving a puppy look that could break down a hardened killer.

"That's not cool! You only ever talk to Haibara-san, Conan-kun, and Shima-kun!" Genta protested, stomping a foot to emphasize his point.

"Haibara-san, Conan-kun, and Shima-kun are always whispering to each other anyways. I bet they're all telling secrets to each other!" Mitsuhiko said this time. Conan tensed, perhaps he'd been doing this to them for too long, it was bound to blow up like this some day. He just wished it hadn't been with Ran around.

"There's nothing we're hiding. We just…get along really well. You guys can whisper with us too," Conan tried, knowing it was kind of a weak defense. It was all he could do though. He didn't have any other ideas right now.

Kaien, however, was highly uncomfortable. He wasn't actually very good with children, despite his excellence in hiding that. He pretended, but for the most part he felt very awkward around them. He didn't know how to appease their anger, so he tried to remain calm and let the fake children do all the work.

And that's when he saw her.

She didn't even bother wearing a disguise. Her long black hair hung in loose waves down her shoulders, her blue eyes almost looked red in the sunlight, and her clothing were that classic BO black, topped with an even darker than black trench coat. She smiled, her ruby lipstick shining like fresh blood and made her pearl white teeth even whiter. If he didn't know her, she could have been mistaken for a creature of the night.

"Brandy," he whispered so hoarsely that it was almost completely unintelligible. But Shima heard it. And his eyes immediately snapped to Kaien, and followed his gaze to the corner.

She was there for a moment, and then gone. Like a ghost.

Because things were only just beginning, and they were _all _in her sights now.

* * *

_I know. It's not super long. However, I really wanted to get this out for you guys because I've taken soooo long to do it. I want to get this story back into gear. I'll finish this thing even if I have to tape my fingers to the keyboard. _


End file.
